Synopsis
This paper analyses the distribution of longline catches of swordfish, **phias gladius, and six species of pelagic elasmobranchs, during a fishing voyage in the tropical eastern Atlantic. Seven scales of sampling units, ranging from about 0.72 to 7.2 km were used. Observed frequencies of appearance of each species in the basic sampling unit, were compared with theoretical frequencies obtained from the Poisson and negative binomial distributions. For the study of the interspecific relationships, contingency tables were used and the degree of association was estimated using the χ2test and the coefficient v of Kendall. The catch distribution of the swordfish and the devil ray (Mobula sp.) can be explained by both randomness and a slight trend to association. For the pelagic sharks, a clear trend towards intraspecific clustering was found. Catches of two species of the genus Carcharhinus showed the most positive trends to interspecific association, especially in short ranges, probably due to attraction to previously hooked fish. The possible causes of these distributions are discussed.
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Rey, J.C., Muñoz-Chápuli, R. Intra and interspecific association of large pelagic fishes inferred from catch data of surface longline. Environ Biol Fish 35, 95–103 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00001163
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00001163