Higher food abundance reduces the catchability of cod (Gadus morhua) to longlines on the Faroe Plateau

The cod fishery at the Faroes has been managed since 1996 by an effort management system where it is assumed that there is a direct relationship between fishing mortality and fishing effort. We show that this relationship is weak. Due to a factor five variation in the primary production on the Faroe Plateau, the annual growth rate of cod may vary by a factor of five. Commercial catch-per-unit-effort data in combination with stock assessment estimates showed that there was a negative correlation between the annual growth rate of cod and their catchability with longlines, as well as with the total fishing mortality of cod on the Faroe Plateau. Furthermore, mark-recapture experiments showed that longline-caught cod in comparison with trawl-caught cod had a lower condition factor, a lower stomach content of natural prey, and a higher content of longline baits. During the feeding season in September–December, longline-caught cod exhibited a larger displacement distance than trawl-caught cod. These results were largely confirmed by storage tag data. Consequently, during low-productive periods, (i) the longline-dominated cod fishery at the Faroes exerted fishing mortalities that by far exceeded safe biological limits, and (ii) longline catch-per-unit-effort series might overestimate stock size considerably.