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. The Canadian Atlantic Swordfish fleet is comprised of two fleet sectors. The longline fleet sector includes 77 licences although since the introduction of an individual transferable quota management system for the longline fishery in 2002, approximately 2/3s of these licences participate in the fishery annually.  Swordfish longline vessels may also fish for other tunas, such as bigeye, yellowfin, and albacore. The harpoon fleet sector includes 962 licences, although fewer than 100 were active in 2009.

The swordfish longline fleet follows the seasonal migration of swordfish and other tunas and vessels operate in areas extending from Georges Bank to the Grand Banks.  The harpoon fishery primarily occurs along the edges of Georges and Browns Banks off of Nova Scotia.

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.

Photo credit: ROPOS.com

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.