1. Tuna fisheries are among the largest and most valuable fisheries in the world, but most interact with many non-target species, including several of high conservation importance. The spinetail devil ray (Mobula mobular) – listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species – is a commonly discarded bycatch species, particularly in the eastern Pacific Ocean, yet insufficient data exist to undertake a traditional population assessment.
2. A new ecological risk assessment approach designed for data-limited settings – Ecological Assessment of the Sustainable Impacts of Fisheries (EASI-Fish) – was used to reconstruct the historical vulnerability status of M. mobular and to simulate potential changes in its status under 45 hypothetical conservation and management measures. These involved various temporal closures of the eastern Pacific Ocean tuna fishery, decreasing post-capture mortality by improved handling and release practices, and combinations of the two.
3. The species was classified as ‘Least Vulnerable’ between 1979 and 1993, but became ‘Most Vulnerable’ from 1994, which coincided with a rapid spatial expansion of the industrial purse-seine fishery, and especially from 2011 following the rapid increase in the number of sets made on floating objects. Simulating the conservation and management measures in place in 2018 revealed that 31 of the 45 scenarios resulted in a change in classification of the species to ‘Least Vulnerable’, which primarily involved a reduction of post-capture mortality by as little as 20%.
4. It is fortuitous in that education of fishers to implement appropriate best handling and release practices is simpler, more rapid and more cost-effective than the implementation of fishery closures or gear modifications, which can be expensive and complex to implement and monitor and will probably result in substantial reduction in the catches of target species.

中文翻译：

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刺尾魔鬼鱼（Mobula mobular）对东太平洋金枪鱼渔业脆弱性的 40 年年表以及未来保护和管理的选择

1. 金枪鱼渔业是世界上最大和最有价值的渔业之一，但大多数与许多非目标物种相互作用，包括一些具有高度保护重要性的物种。刺尾鳐（Mobula mobular）——在世界自然保护联盟濒危物种红色名录中被列为“濒危”——是一种经常被丢弃的兼捕物种，特别是在东太平洋，但目前没有足够的数据进行传统的种群评估。
2. 一种为数据有限的环境设计的新生态风险评估方法——渔业可持续影响生态评估 (EASI-Fish)——被用来重建M. mobular的历史脆弱性状态，并在 45 个假设条件下模拟其状态的潜在变化保护和管理措施。这些涉及东太平洋金枪鱼渔业的各种时间关闭，通过改进处理和释放做法降低捕获后的死亡率，以及两者的结合。
3. 该物种在 1979 年至 1993 年间被列为“最不脆弱”，但从 1994 年起成为“最脆弱”，这与工业围网渔业的空间快速扩张相吻合，特别是从 2011在浮动物体上制作的套装。模拟 2018 年实施的保护和管理措施显示，45 种情景中的 31 种导致物种分类更改为“最不脆弱”，这主要涉及将捕获后死亡率降低 20%。
4. 幸运的是，教育渔民实施适当的最佳处理和释放做法比实施渔业关闭或渔具改造更简单、更迅速、更具成本效益，实施和监测可能既昂贵又复杂，可能会导致大幅减少目标物种的渔获量。