Carolina Viviana Minte-Vera

Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission | IATTC · Stock Assessessment Program

Catch-and-effort data are among the primary sources of information for assessing the status of terrestrial wildlife and fish. In fishery science, elaborate stock-assessment models are fitted to such data in order to estimate fish-population sizes and guide management decisions. Given the importance of catch-and-effort data, we scoured a comprehensi...

The peacock cichlid Cichla ocellaris is a piscivorous fish, native to the Amazon region and introduced throughout the Americas, leading to adverse impacts on native fish assemblages. Applying the INVASS model, an approach conceived primarily to structure knowledge on terrestrial plants, we systematically describe which mechanisms are critical at ea...

The values used for natural mortality (M) are very influential in stock assessment models, affecting model outcomes and management advice. Natural mortality is one of the most difficult demographic parameters to estimate, and there is often limited information about the true levels. Here, we summarise the evidence used to estimate natural mortality...

Integrated stock assessments consist of fitting several sources of catch, abundance, and auxiliary biological information to estimate parameters of equations that describe the population dynamics of fish stocks. Stock assessments are subject to uncertainty, and it is a common practice to characterize uncertainty using alternative hypotheses and ass...

Catch-and-effort data are among the primary sources of information for assessing the status of terrestrial wildlife and fish. In fishery science, elaborate stock-assessment models are fitted to such data in order to estimate fish-population sizes and guide management decisions. Given the importance of catch-and-effort data, we scoured a comprehensi...

We analyzed individual growth and body mass allometry of the temperate stock of Sardinops sagax from samples collected on commercial fleet during 2005 to 2014 in the southern California Current System. Ages were estimated on otolith growth ring reading. Age (years) and standard length (SL; mm) data were fitted using four growth models: von Bertalan...

Integrated models (IMs) for stock assessment are simultaneously fit to diverse data sets to estimate parameters related to biological and fishery processes. Model misspecification may appear as contradictory signals in the data about these processes and may bias the estimate of quantities of interest. Auxiliary diagnostic analyses may be used to de...

This study aimed to understand the size-specific spatiotemporal dynamics of bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) in the eastern Pacific Ocean from 1991 to 2017. A spatiotemporal delta-generalized linear mixed model was applied to catch rate data by size class collected from a Japanese longline fishery. The results showed that the density of bigeye tuna varie...

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) has annually reported on 7 ecological indicators derived from the “ETP7” ecosystem model since 2019 as one of several strategies to facilitate an ecosystem approach to the management of tuna fisheries in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) as mandated by the Antigua Convention. Reporting of bycatch in...

The five Regional Fishery Management Organizations dedicated to tunas (tRFMOs) are all either developing or implementing Management Strategy Evaluations (MSEs) to provide advice for the stocks under their competencies. Providing a comparative overview will help tRFMOs to learn from one another and to collaborate on common solutions and may also hel...

We describe and illustrate a spatio-temporal modelling approach for analyzing age-or size-specific catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) data to develop indices of relative abundance and associated composition data. The approach is based on three concepts: 1) composition data that are used to determine the component of the population represented by the inde...

Tunas are the focus of significant fisheries in the Pacific Ocean, where landings of four species – skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) and albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) – constitute approximately 70 % of the global tuna catch. Stock assessments for skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye t...

Delineating the stock structure of highly-mobile, wide-ranging fishes subject to exploitation is a challenging task, yet one that is fundamental to optimal fisheries management. A case in point are stocks of skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) and albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) in t...

The small quantity of basic studies like age and growth estimates implies a lack of stock assessments and difficulties to make decisions related to fisheries management and biodiversity conservation. Therefore, we extensively and systematically reviewed the growth parameters of freshwater species from South America, with the following objectives: v...

Ecological risk assessment (ERA), including Productivity-Susceptibility Analysis (PSA), is becoming increasingly used to assess the relative vulnerability of data-limited non-target species to the impacts by fishing. PSA was developed for the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) tuna purse-seine fishery to assess the vulnerability of incidentally-caught spe...

The Brazilian-endemic greenbeack parrotfish, Scarus trispinosus Valenciennes, 1840, is the largest herbivorous reef fish in the South Atlantic. Following the sharp decline of large carnivorous reef fishes, parrotfishes (Labridae: Scarinae) were progressively targeted by commercial fisheries in Brazil, resulting in a global population decline of 50%...

Ecological models are useful for evaluating fishery management scenarios, as they allow researchers to investigate alternative fishing effort, as well as varying environmental and trophic interaction scenarios. Through an ecosystem modeling approach (Ecopath with Ecosim), we addressed the possible impacts of small-scale fisheries on the structure a...

Spatiotemporal models of catch rate data are used in fisheries science to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of a fishery and, more importantly, to produce a standardized index of relative abundance for stock assessment models. Here, we apply a spatiotemporal delta-generalized linear mixed model to catch rate data collected from the dolphin-ass...

In Brazil, during the past 20 years, several dynamic collaborative coastal management (CCM) arrangements have emerged in response to a variety of changing social and ecological conditions. These arrangements have led to an equally large range of outcomes, such as the fishing agreements in the Amazon basin and marine extractive reserves in coastal a...

Here we choose the sábalo Prochilodus lineatus, to answer the following questions: How the otolith length and weight are correlated to fish measurements (length and weight)? How reliable are the otoliths measurements to predict the length and age of P. lineatus? Finally, we propose predictive equations of the length and weight of the fish using len...

Reference points are used to determine whether overfishing is occurring, a stock is overfished, or the abundance of the stock is approaching an undesirable level. Reference points are often classified as limit reference points, which indicate an undesirable state, or target reference points, which specify a desirable one. Limit reference points fre...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. The assessment of bigeye tuna in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) in 2017 uses the same model as the previous assessment, and includes new and updated data. 2. The results of this assessment indicate a recovering trend for bigeye in the EPO during 2005-2009, subsequent to IATTC tuna conservation resolutions initiated in 2004. Ho...

We present the growth cessation model, which is designed for species, such as some tropical tunas, that have an apparent linear relationship between length and age, followed by a marked reduction of growth after the onset of sexual maturity. The growth curve simply assumes linear growth for the youngest individuals and then uses a logistic function...

The reproductive biology of Epinephelus morio (red grouper) and Mycteroperca bonaci (black grouper) were evaluated based on 533 specimens collected from artisanal fisheries landings in the Abrolhos Bank, Brazil, between May 2005 and September 2012. Sex ratio for the black grouper was 1:14 (n = 155 females and 11 males; 26.1–147 cm TL) and 1:10 for...

Otolith-based methods combined with catch lengths were used to produce three simple fishing indicators for assessing stock status of the lane snapper Lutjanus synagris in the Abrolhos Bank, central Brazilian coast. Fish were obtained during landings between May 2005 and June 2007. Marginal Increment Analyses combined with edge analysis on sectioned...

Red and black groupers are large-bodied opportunistic ambush predators commonly found in Southwestern Atlantic tropical reefs. We investigated the diet of both species in order to detail ontogenetic, spatial and temporal trends, and to assess the extent of overlap in resource use between these two sympatric predators on the Abrolhos Bank, Brazil. D...

To better understand the ecology and biology of the curimba in the Parana River and to provide basic information for fisheries stock assessment, this study address the following questions: Do age estimates derived from otoliths and scale agree for Prochilodus lineatus? What is the growth trajectory for curimba in the upper Parana River? What is the...

The exploitation status of marine fisheries stocks worldwide is of critical importance for food security, ecosystem conservation, and fishery sustainability. Applying a suite of data-limited methods to global catch data, combined through an ensemble modeling approach, we provide quantitative estimates of exploitation status for 785 fish stocks. Fif...

Weighting of size-composition data (length or weight composition of the catches) can have a large influence on the results of contemporary integrated stock assessment models in the presence of model misspecification. Model misspecification leads to conflicting information among data sets, and the choice of data weighting will determine the results....

In this study we tested the basic premise that fishers' knowledge provides similar perceptions about exploited stocks to data gathered by standardised monitoring in a small-scale commercial fishery. To that end, we compared temporal trends in catch and individual size for fish species between data obtained from interviews with fishers and a 25-year...

As the commonly-used von Bertalanffy growth function (VB) does not explicitly incorporate changes in growth due to allocation of energy to reproduction, a more flexible function could be used when attempting to model juvenile and adult growth simultaneously. Here we review biphasic growth models, with emphasis on those that explicitly incorporate t...

In the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) are often found in association with spotted (Stenella attenuata) and spinner (Stenella longirostris) dolphins. Purse-seine vessels use this co-occurrence to locate the tuna by searching for dolphins and associated birds. Data collected by onboard observers since the late 1970...

Invasion by Cichla ocellaris was studied in the Upper Paraná River floodplain. Generalised linear models and the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) were applied to standardised gill-net catch data (CPUE), with years, rivers, secchi depth, and their respective interactions. Generalised additive models and AIC were used to evaluate relationships of C...

Background. The goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara (Lichtenstein, 1822), is the largest Atlantic grouper. It has been the first marine fish subjected to a fishing moratorium in Brazil (since 2002). The aim of this study was to investigate basic biological aspects, particularly the diet and reproduction of this endangered species. We believe that...

Variation in individual growth rates contributes to changes over time in compensatory population growth and surplus production for marine fishes. However, there is little evidence regarding the prevalence and magnitude of time-varying growth for exploited marine fishes in general, whether it is best approximated using changes in length-at-age or we...

5 SUMMARY Incidental catches of dolphinfish, Coryphaena hippurus, and wahoo, Acanthocybium solandri, by Sao Paulo tuna longline fleet off south and southeast Brazil from 1971 to 2009 were analyzed. The main change in this fleet was the substitution of traditional Japanese longline to surface longline (monofilament). Thus, it was used in the 1971-19...

Stock status is a key parameter for evaluating the sustainability of fishery resources and developing corresponding management plans. However, the majority of stocks are not assessed, often as a result of insufficient data and a lack of resources needed to execute formal stock assessments. The working group involved in this publication focused...

The responsibility for water resources management in small communities is usually in charge of public adminstration, exempting and separating the population of their duties and participation in decision making polices respectively. Environmental education is fundamental to achieve a broader discussion about the context of preservation and conservat...

Research shows that population status can be predicted using catch data, but there is little justification for why these predictions work or how they account for changes in fisheries management. We demonstrate that biomass can be reconstructed from catch data whenever fishing mortality follows predictable dynamics over time (called “effort dynamics...

The mathematical and statistical advances in fitting stock assessment models enabled the emergence of the paradigm of “integrated analysis”, which fits all available data to a single model of population dynamics that traditionally has total catch as the only forcing function of the system. This approach, however, allowed us to include, in a flexibl...

The lack of a long term, comprehensive and reliable fisheries statistics system is a major impediment to fisheries management in Brazil. Fishing is one of the main activities throughout the country's coast, with predominance of small-scale, artisanal, multigear, and multispecies captures that are landed in a pulverized network of coastal villages....

Freshwater fisheries are mainly small-scale activities and occur mostly in developing countries. These fisheries are recognized for its chronic lack of data and incipient knowledge when compared to large-scale fisheries, despite its socioeconomic and food security relevance. Brazil is a good model of small-scale freshwater fisheries country because...

The Abrolhos Bank (eastern Brazil) encompasses the largest and richest coral reefs of the South Atlantic. Coral reef benthic assemblages of the region were monitored from 2003 to 2008. Two habitats (pinnacles' tops and walls) were sampled per site with 3-10 sites sampled within different reef areas. Different methodologies were applied in two disti...

Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) testing the effect of reef areas, habitats and years in cover of different benthic organisms for the two sampling periods (2003–2005/2005–2008). (DOC)

Significant differences in benthic cover according to reef areas (R), habitats (H) and years (Y), as determined by Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) post-hoc comparisons. Reefs arranged in decreasing order of benthic cover, with homogeneous groups linked by an equal sign. Reef areas: IN – Itacolomis Reef (no-take), IT – Itacolomis Reef (multiple-use), PB...

Decreasing order of abundance of benthic organisms in the Abrolhos Bank. Species codes: First three letters of genus name followed by first three letters of specific epithet (see full names in Table S2). (TIF)

Summary of environmental characteristics of sampling reefs and sites. (DOC)

Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) testing the effect of reef areas (R) and years (Y) in cover of different benthic organisms with data obtained between 2006 and 2008. Reef areas: AR – Abrolhos Archipelago, IN – Itacolomis Reef (no-take), IT – Itacolomis Reef (multiple-use), PB – Parcel dos Abrolhos (no-take), TI – Timbebas Reef (no-take), UP – Unprotect...

Multiple regression results showing the relative influence of fast growing non-reef building organisms (turf alga, fleshy algae and Palythoa caribaeorum) on abundance of key reef-building organisms (scleractinians and crustose calcareous algae). Levels of significance for full model and partial r2: * P<0.05; ** P<0.01; *** P<0.001. (DOC)

Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) testing the effect of reef areas (R), habitats (H) and years (Y) in cover of different benthic organisms with data obtained between 2006 and 2008. The Abrolhos Archipelago area (rocky reef) was excluded from these analyses in order to allow a more comprehensive comparison between pinnacles' tops and walls (see Material...

Estimating total landings of artisanal fisheries in managed areas is essential for the development of programs aimed at the establishment of sustainable production systems. However, few experiences addressed the constraints of assessments targeted at multispecific and small scale fisheries with pulverized landings. Total annual production (fish, lo...

a b s t r a c t Monitoring the components of diversity may provide important information about diversity dynamics and processes that modify ecosystems. We investigated the temporal diversity of the zooplankton groups (testate amoebae, rotifers and microcrustaceans) over ten years (2000–2009) at local and regional scales in the alluvial valley of th...

Please, download the report from this link: www.msc.org/track-a-fishery/fisheries-in-the-program/certified/south-atlantic-indian-ocean/argentine_hoki/assessment-downloads-1/HOKI%20Public%20Certification%20Report.pdf

The first standardized, global assessment of these fishes, using Red List criteria, reveals threatened species needing protection.

We determined the age and growth of the dog snapper (Lutjanus jocu), caught in the region of Abrolhos Bank, Bahia State, by the fishermen from coastal communities of Prado, Alcobaça, Caravelas, and Nova Viçosa. We examined 205 sectioned otoliths of fish caught by harpoon, longline, hand line, and gill nets (14.5 to 79.5 cm fork length). The formati...

Although information on the spawning seasons of commercially important snappers (Lutjanidae) and groupers (Serranidae, subfamily Epinephelinae) is available for the north and central west Atlantic, there is little information for the tropical western South Atlantic (Brazil). As a consequence, there are few fishery regulations in this entire region...

Please, download the report from this link: www.msc.org/track-a-fishery/fisheries-in-the-program/certified/south-atlantic-indian-ocean/argentine_anchovy/assessment-downloads-1/18.09.2011_ANCHOITACertificationPublicReportFinal.pdf

Bats may exhibit different patterns of activity, considering aspects concerning niche dynamics as well as the establishment and permanence of the communities in the ecosystems. In this way, the present study analyzed the time and seasonal patterns of activity in different species of frequent phyllostomid bats in remnants of the stational semidecidu...