Summary
The authors performed modeling on 10 years of logbook data to analyze environmental and operational factors that influence shark and odontocete depredation in the New Caledonian longline tuna fishery. Results suggest that there are "hotspots" of odontocete depredation, and that it is driven by environmental factors such as sea surface temperature and bathymetry, while shark depredation is driven by operational fisheries factors such as soaking time and number of hooks. Alterations such as reducing soaking time to under 12 hours, or setting limits on hooks to <1,750, could significantly reduce the likelihood of depredation.