A life history approach to the assessment of deepwater fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic

The original publication published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Deep Sea 2003: Conference on the Governance and Management of Deep-sea Fisheries. Part 1: Conference reports. FAO Fisheries Proceedings. No. 3/1 is available at ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/a0210e/a0210e.pdfIt has been generally stated that deepwater fishes cannot sustain high levels of exploitation because of their characteristic slow growth, longevity and low reproductive output. However deepwater fish species display a wide variety of life-history strategies, occupying diverse positions along the K-r continuum. Literature sources provided data on age, growth, fecundity, maturity and mortality rates of several deepwater teleosts and elasmobranchs. Many teleosts displayed intermediate or conservative life-history characteristics, but the squalid sharks were more stringent K-strategists. These data were used in life-history analyses to assess the sustainability of these mixed-species deepwater fisheries. Whilst there may be scope for compensatory changes in fecundity such scope is likely to be limited, especially for sharks. The implications of these life-history parameters for sustainable exploitation are discussed by way of comparison with continental shelf species from this region