Atlantic Tarpon in Cuban fisheries: a historically exploited and very vulnerable species

Atlantic Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) is a well-known sport-fish species, but for most of the Cuban people it is best known for consumption. Currently, it is listed as vulnerable by Cuban fishery authorities, despite the lack of studies on its ecology and management. A critical knowledge gap is the characterization of the Atlantic Tarpon commercial fishery, including estimates of the fishery's distribution, catch yield, seasonality, historical trends, and size composition. Therefore, this contribution characterizes Cuban Atlantic Tarpon state and private commercial fisheries through the assessment of these factors. Firstly, we visited 42 Cuban fishing ports (and nearby areas) during 2016–2017 and recovered information from fishers about Atlantic Tarpon perceived abundance, seasonality, and incidence in fisheries. Secondly, we analyzed the Atlantic Tarpon captures from the state (1981–2021) and private (2014–2021) commercial fisheries in Cuba. Lastly, we analyzed captures from Villa Clara, where one of the enterprises with higher capture reports occurs (EPICAI), to assess Atlantic Tarpon size composition (2016–2022). Atlantic Tarpon is distributed and captured along all of Cuba's shelf, and the fishery is following a decreasing trend, similar to the Cuban total finfish fisheries. Site-specific dynamics were observed in historical trends and seasonality, with the northeastern and southeastern areas the most important in terms of Atlantic Tarpon captures. Villa Clara samples resulted in numerous Atlantic Tarpon smaller than both its minimum size at maturity (75% < 880 mm) and its minimum legal size for Cuban fisheries (36.77% < 430 mm). The sustainability of Atlantic Tarpon as a fishing resource is of huge concern since it is a very vulnerable species in Cuban fisheries, protected by minor and in some cases ineffective regulations (very small legal minimum size), with synergistic pressures occurring locally, and under the perspective of worse scenarios.