(Hampton J., Sibert J., Kleibert P., Maunder M., Harley S.). 2003. pdf 93k
Tuna have been the target of large-scale industrial fisheries in the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere since the 1950s. In their analysis of Japanese longline-fishery catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) data, Myers and Worm conclude that the community(species-fish, mainly tunas, was reduced by 80%during the first 15 years of exploitation andis now at 10% of pre-industrial levels. We show here that anassumption critical tothis conclusion — namely, that Japanese longline CPUE acts as an accurate index ofcommunity biomass — is invalid. Our results indicate that biomass decline andfishing impacts are much less severe than is claimed by Myers and Worm. aggregated) biomass of large pelagic