Monitoring Dolphinfish as Seafood

Issues facing the Western Central Atlantic (WCA) stock, such as a decline in abundance, seasonal persistence, and the size of fish encountered, are not just occurring in Florida.  Our research program has been active in Puerto Rico since 2008, and beginning in 2018, we started collecting seafood data for every seafood purchase from a restaurant on the north coast of Puerto Rico known as MenTa. Dolphinfish has been the top species acquired and served by weight at this restaurant since 2018, whereby 9,989.5 pounds of dolphinfish were served. This past year, however, had the lowest amount acquired over the 5.5-year dataset, and this is nearly 3 times lower when comparing Q1 2023, to Q1 2022, and Q1 2021.  In this issue of our newsletter, we will discuss our ongoing seafood research with MenTa.  This research began as a pilot program funded by the Waitt Foundation in 2018 to implement a seafood traceability pilot program in Puerto Rico.  Below is a video that we released at the end of 2018 that highlights the successful implementation of that pilot program.

While funding has expired for that program we still continued to work with MenTa to acquire and log their daily seafood data.  To date, we have documented 1,793 seafood transactions, with 59.7% representing locally sourced seafood purchases.  Dolphinfish was the top single species served by weight, 1.5x higher than all other pelagic species combined (YFT, SWO, BLK, SKJ, WAH, ALB), and higher than the second most dominant species acquired, queen snapper.  However, when looked at by quarter beginning in 2021 following the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, acquisition of dolphinfish has dropped, with the most drastic decline observed for Q1 2023. This year’s decline is consistent with many anglers’ comments to our program that it was the worst year for dolphinfish (and wahoo) that they can remember in Puerto Rico.  Click here to learn more about how this ongoing research is important to document trends in the population status of dolphinfish, and other species, in the northeast Caribbean Sea. 

Dolphin Management Update

At its June quarterly meeting, the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (SAFMC) reviewed its direction for the management of dolphin along the U.S. East Coast.  The Council elected to delay the development of Regulatory Amendment (RA3) until the dolphin Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) report is available or to the December 2024 Council meeting.  RA3 includes consideration of extending the 20” minimum size north of South Carolina and possibly lowering the vessel limit below the current 54 per day.  The delay in RA3 began a year ago at the June 2022 Council meeting and now may extend to two and a half years. As pointed out in the management update in our March newsletter (click here) and in our recent letter to the Council (click here), the MSE is a worthwhile project.  That said, the long-term decline of the fishery to its current state warrants a timelier progression of RA3.  As covered in the April newsletter (click here), the U.S. Caribbean Fisheries Management Council is actively moving forward its amendment to strengthen the management of dolphin in its areas of jurisdiction, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Click here to learn more.

June Dolphinfish Recaptures

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Source: https://floridasportfishing.com/monitoring-dolphinfish-as-seafood/