Productivity-susceptibility analysis of 10 shark populations in tropical Pacific Ocean

The tropical Pacific Ocean is the main tuna fishing area in the world. The impact of tuna longline fishery on pelagic shark populations has received considerable concerns recently. However, it is difficult toevaluate their population status using formal stock assessment models due to the lack of long-term fishery data.Weconduct productivity-susceptibility analysis (PSA) to evaluate the vulnerability to overfishing for10 pelagic shark species in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The10 species with risk of overfishing suffered from longline fishery, in terms of vulnerability score, are as follows (in ascending order): smooth hammerhead (Sphyrna zygaena), scalloped hammerhead (S.lewini), great hammerhead (S.mokarran), shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), common thresher (Alopias vulpinus), oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus), blue shark (Prionace glauca), silky shark (C.falciformis), pelagic thresher (A.pelagicus) and bigeye thresher (A.superciliosus). The resultsprovide important information for conservation of pelagic sharks and pelagic ecosystem interacting with tuna longline fisheries in the tropical Pacific Ocean.