Climate variability and pelagic fisheries in northern Chile

A time series analysis of long-term climate variability in northern Chile ( 18 degrees 21'-24 degrees 00'S) shows anomalies associated with the El Nino events and the longer warm period observed since 1976, followed by a cooli ng trend since mid 1980s. The succession of pelagic fisheries, anchovy (Eng raulis ringens) and sardine (Sardinops sagax), occurring in this fishing zo ne was analyzed taking into account the landings, the CPUE abundance index, the fishing effort, and the environmental variables. The anchovy productio n model is a negative linear function of fishing effort and turbulence. For sardine, the production model is a negative linear function of fishing eff ort and a quadratic function of the sea surface temperature. An analysis of the relationship between recruitment, adult biomass and the environment shows that the annual recruitment of anchovy increases with tur bulence intensity until wind speed reaches a value of 5.46 In s(-1), decrea sing for higher values. For sardine, the recruitment increases with turbule nce intensity until 5.63 m s(-1), stabilizing thereafter. It is deduced that the climatic variations associated to the El Nino events affect the abundance of coastal pelagic fishes, without forgetting the mos t likely effects upon its distribution and the fishing effort. However, it is the long-term variability that mainly affects the fishing activity. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.