STANDARDIZED CATCH PER UNIT OF EFFORT OF WHITE MARLIN, TETRAPTURUS ALBIDUS, AND BLUE MARLIN, MAKAIRA NIGRICANS, CAUGHT BY BRAZILIAN TUNA LONGLINE FLEET

SUMMARY In the present paper, white and blue marlin catch data from the Brazilian commercial longline fishery, from 1980 to 2004, were analyzed. The catch per unit of effort (CPUE), as the number of fish caught per 100 hooks, was standardized by delta-log normal GLM, based on 53,713 longline sets. The frequencies of zero catches were equal to 87.0% and 83.4% for white and blue marlin, respectively. The following factors were considered in the analyses: year, month, area, target species, moon phase, sea surface temperature (SST), and depth of the fishing ground. The total fishing ground, ranging from 7oN to 50oS, was divided into 2 areas, by the 15oS of latitude. The target species was based on a cluster analysis done in a previous work, as follows: C1: yellowfin tuna; C2: albacore; C3: blue shark; C4: swordfish; C5: bigeye tuna; and C6: Carcharhinus spp. Standardized CPUE series for both species were generated. RÉSUMÉ