Abstract
Due to the morphological similarity between some billfish species, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) recommends the use of molecular tools to identify billfish at the species level to properly manage this imperiled group. In this study, species-specific swordfish and billfish identification was carried out by using PCR-RFLP and multiplex PCR of the mitochondrial COI gene. Samples were obtained during landings of the tuna fleet at the Public Fisheries Port of Santos (PFPS) and in the General Warehouse Company of São Paulo (CEAGESP), Brazil. A total of 87 samples from PFPS were identified: Kajikia albida, Tetrapturus georgii, T. pfluegeri, Makaira nigricans, and Istiophorus platypterus. At CEAGESP, 432 individuals were collected, and three species were detected: Xiphias gladius, I. platypterus and T. georgii. Some samples presented an unknown band pattern for PCR-RFLP, which were sequenced and identified as X. gladius. These findings demonstrate that billfishes protected by law are being caught by industrial fisheries, but they are not traded at the CEAGESP. We advocate continuous onboard and of landings fishing monitoring using molecular identification tools in accordance with ICCAT recommendations. We provided evidence that DNA-based methods are efficient in overcoming billfish misidentification in the Atlantic Ocean.
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08 May 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-021-01211-w
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (2015/23883-0). A grant for Suhaila K. K. Jaser was provided by CNPq. The authors thank Dr. Alberto Ferreira Amorim for kindly supplying billfish and swordfish tissue samples, and Carlos Eduardo Malavasi Bruno for helping in CEAGESP’s sampling. Also, we are indebted to all the staff of the CEAGESP and the fish retailers for their invaluable assistance during the late-evening samplings. This work was developed as part of the full requirements for the Doctoral thesis of S.K.K.J in Biotechnology at the University of São Paulo (USP). AWSH is recipient of CNPq productivity scholarship (304662/2017-8).
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Jaser, S.K.K., Domingues, R.R. & Hilsdorf, A.W.S. Assessing illegal fishing and trade of Atlantic billfish and swordfish by DNA-based identification. Conservation Genet Resour 13, 183–190 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-021-01190-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-021-01190-y