Volume 66
Portrait of the Deep Water Snapper Fishery in Puerto Rico During 1988 – 2012
Authors
Matos-Caraballo, D., L. Rivera-Padilla, J. León-Fernández, G.O. Arroyo-Morales, and L.T. Vargas-Dinizard Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2013
Pages: 558 559
Event: Proceedings of the Sixty six Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Corpus Christy
Country: USA
Abstract
The deep water snapper has been the most important finfish fishery in Puerto Rico since 1970?s. During the men-tioned 1970 - 1990, there were approximately 25 fishing vessels 40 feet length or larger dedicate to deep water snapper fishery. From 1990?s to the present there was observed that approximately 100 fishing vessels of 22 - 25 feet length has been used successfully for the deep water snapper fishery. This fishing activity occurs around the Puerto Rico. The fishing time duration of the fishing trip is approximately 10 - 12 hours. There are five species of deep water snapper in Puerto Rico, silk snapper Lutjanus vivanus, blackfin snapper Lutjanus bucanella, queen snapper Etelis ocula-tus, vermillon snapper Rhomboplites aurorubens and cardinal snapper Pristipomoides macrophthalmus. During the 1970-1990, silk snapper was the most important species of deep water snapper landed in pounds in Puerto Rico. Howev-er, since 1995, the queen snapper has been the most important landed species in pounds. Since 2005, the deep water snapper fishery was protected by the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) and the NO-AA Fisheries DNER. Both agencies established a yearly closed season from October 1st to December 31st. This paper will show the trends in deep water snappers landings data, biostatics data and fishing census for deep water snapper during 1988 - 2012. Also, we will discuss the closed season to protect the resources established by NOAA Fisheries and the DNER and the trend observed after five years of the closed season establishment.