Fishery as administrative unit: implications for sea turtle conservation

The pelagic longline fishery in Brazil started in the mid-fifties. This fishery uses different strategies to catch swordfish, tunas, sharks and dolphinfish, however those strategies also affect the incidental capture of sea turtles. If fishing strategies change according to target species and if these strategies affect the sea turtle capture then classify and group the distinct longline fisheries based on its characteristic and according to the homogeneity principle becomes necessary to better understand the incidental capture of sea turtles, their causes and consequences. Nevertheless, this approach has not been used and, usually, pelagic longline fisheries have been analyzed as a unique administrative unit, as being homogeneous when affecting the biota. Here we used the information of sea turtle incidental capture in longline fishing from Tamar Project database (1999-2016) and have separated the Brazilian pelagic longline fishery in five distinct fisheries, according to its characteristics. The results show differences for sea turtle species composition, BPUEs and size classes by turtle specie captured on different longline fisheries. This fact has important implications for sea turtle conservation as well as for the management of fisheries.