Atlantic Swordfish

Swordfish are highly migratory pelagic fish ranging throughout the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. They are managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), which establishes quota allocations for each of the Commission’s 48 contracting parties.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) total allowable catch in 2010 for North Atlantic swordfish is 13,700 tonnes. Canada's allocation of this TAC is 1,348 t. In the Atlantic, the Canadian fishery has two fleet sectors: longline and harpoon. There are 77 licence holders in the longline fleet, which fish primarily in offshore waters. These licencees may also fish for other tunas, such as bigeye, yellowfin, and albacore. The harpoon fleet operates in inshore waters and may only catch swordfish. This fleet is made up of 962 licence holders, although fewer than 100 were active in 2009.

The fleet shares are approximately 10 per cent for the harpoon sector and 90 per cent for the longline sector. Only 52 of the 77 licensed swordfish longline fishers landed fish in the 2009 fishery. The reduced effort in recent years is a result of a combination of factors, including increased opportunities for fishing other species, relatively low market prices, and the introduction of an individual transferable quota management system for the longline fishery in 2002.

The following information is a stock assessment provided by ICCAT (pg. 88): http://www.iccat.es/Documents/Meetings/Docs/SCRS_REPORT_ENG_ALL_OCT_16.pdf

The last assessment for Atlantic swordfish was conducted in 2006, and is divided by region – North Atlantic and South Atlantic.

North Atlantic

In 1999, ICCAT introduced a 10-year recovery plan to rebuild the stock of North Atlantic swordfish. Indications are that this stock has significantly recovered from previous low numbers. This improvement is due to strong recruitment (the number of new juvenile fish reaching a size where they become large enough to be caught) and reductions in reported catch. The biomass, or abundance, of North Atlantic swordfish at the beginning of 2006 was estimated to be 99% of what is needed to produce the largest average catch that can be taken continuously, or sustainably, from a stock under typical environmental conditions (this is also known as the maximum sustainable yield). When the rebuilding program was first implemented, the swordfish biomass level had been reduced to 65 percent of its healthy stock size. An updated stock assessment in 2009 confirmed that the North Atlantic Swordfish stock had been fully rebuilt.

South Atlantic

While recognizing that further research is required to make better use of the data available, the results indicate that this stock is in good condition. The estimated maximum sustainable yield is 33 percent higher than current reported landings.