Spainʹs North Atlantic swordfish fishery

The great growth of the Spanish swordfish fleet at the beginning of the 1990s has consolidated its position as the main northern stock swordfish producer, followed far behind by the USA, Canada and other EU countries. The aim of this paper is to analyse the determining institutional and economic factors in said fishery. We study the management instruments, placing special emphasis on the pertinent Spanish regulations and describe in detail the technical characteristics of the fleet, the fishing effort and the landings. We also carry out estimations of the revenues, costs and total income generated by the fleet. The results show the economic profitability of the fishery, with incomes which have increased, on average, by 7% in the last 15 years.