Hierarchical interpretation of nonlinear relationships linking yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) distribution to the environment in the Atlantic Ocean

2001 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Maury ◽  
Didier Gascuel ◽  
Francis Marsac ◽  
Alain Fonteneau ◽  
Anne-Laure De Rosa

Using generalized additive models, we show evidence for nonlinear relationships between various hydrological factors and age-structured catch per unit effort of Atlantic yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) for two fishing fleets. Catchability effects are distinguished from tuna environmental preference effects in the catch per unit effort variability. With respect to catchability, an important nonlinear effect of local fishing effort is highlighted for each fleet. It is interpreted as resulting from a local overfishing phenomenon of adult yellowfin tuna and from vessel fishing tactics (cooperation/spying). The environmental preferences obtained facilitate the interpretation of the hierarchical spatial distribution and age-dependent movements of the yellowfin population. We show that, on a large spatiotemporal scale (the whole ocean), low salinity is a good predictor of yellowfin habitat. Juveniles are mainly distributed in low-salinity waters (<0.035 kg·kg–1) when adults extend their range to waters of 0.036 kg·kg–1. On a mesoscale, adult population annual reproductive transatlantic displacements are probably driven by temperature and salinity gradients to warm and low-salinity locations that are favorable for juveniles. North–south seasonal movements of the population are clearly related to warmwater seasonal oscillations. On a small scale, ocean thermic stability and gradients of sea surface temperature are important physical factors determining yellowfin concentration.

2002 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 1002-1013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Bertrand ◽  
Erwan Josse ◽  
Pascal Bach ◽  
Philippe Gros ◽  
Laurent Dagorn

We studied relationships between tropical tunas (albacore (Thunnus alalunga), bigeye (Thunnus obesus), and yellowfin (Thunnus albacares)) and their biotic and abiotic environments through simultaneous acoustic observations of tunas and their prey, experimental longline catch, and oceanographic data in French Polynesia. Vertical habitat limits were estimated based on temperature and dissolved oxygen at capture data. We then studied tuna-micronekton relationships to better understand how tuna occupy the pelagic space. At a regional scale, tunas were more abundant in areas rich in prey with favourable hydrological conditions. Inside such areas, at the scale of a longline set, however, the longline catches were maximal only when prey were not distributed in dense patches (except for yellowfin tuna). We interpreted this result by considering that areas with high prey abundance attract tunas, but at a small scale, if prey are patchy distributed, tunas are more inclined to feed on them rather than on longline baits. The effect of patches on yellowfin tuna catch per unit effort (CPUE) does not appear likely because this species also feeds on the mixed layer, where patch density was very low. Not only hydrological characteristics, but also prey density and prey patch characteristics, should be taken into account for interpreting longline CPUE data.


Fishes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Budy Wiryawan ◽  
Neil Loneragan ◽  
Ulfah Mardhiah ◽  
Sonja Kleinertz ◽  
Prihatin Ika Wahyuningrum ◽  
...  

Tuna fisheries are the most valuable fisheries in the world, with an estimated market value of at least US$42 billion in 2018. Indonesia plays an important role in the global tuna fisheries and has committed to improve its fisheries management; therefore, a pilot of long-term spatial-temporal data bases was developed in 2012, however none have utilized data to have better understanding for management improvement. In this study, the annual and seasonal variation of large (≥10 kg) Yellowfin Tuna (YFT) catch per unit effort (CPUE) have been investigated and the influence of sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll-a on these variables examined. We used fish landing data from West Nusa Tenggara recorded every month between 2012 and 2017 and analyzed using generalized linear models and generalized additive models. We found a seasonal and annual pattern of tuna abundance affected by SST and chlorophyll-a (chl a) and related to upwelling and El Nino event. These results also suggest that a two-month closure to fishing in August and September in southern Lombok is worth considering by the Government to maximize conservation of stocks due to a high abundance of juveniles emerging during the upwelling months from June to August.


1998 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 475 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hampton ◽  
John Gunn

Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and bigeye tuna (T. obesus) were tagged and released in the north-western Coral Sea off northern Queensland in 1991 and 1992. Over the next five years, recaptures were reported by Australian longline vessels based in Cairns and fishing in the release area, and by industrial tuna fleets fishing in the adjacent western Pacific region, thus demonstrating clear links between the tuna stocks in these areas. Some southerly movements of yellowfin, in particular, further suggested links with stocks supporting the longline fishery in the south-eastern Australian Fishing Zone. Bigeye tuna tag returns and catch per unit effort by Cairns-based longliners showed a strong seasonal signal, peaking in mid year. Yellowfin tag-return data displayed a similar, but weaker, seasonal pattern. The data were analysed by use of tag-attrition models with seasonally variable catchability and with two assumptions regarding changes in targeting of the two species by longliners during the study. Under both assumptions, the local exploitation rates for yellowfin are low: about 0.07 in 1996. For bigeye, the local exploitation rate in 1996 may have been as high as 0.30, warranting a cautious approach to further fishery expansion in this area.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward R Abraham ◽  
Philipp Neubauer

Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) is commonly used as an index of abundance in fishery stock assessments, but CPUE may be misleading, as a number of global fishery collapses have been attributed to a hyper-stable CPUE. In abalone (Halitidae family) fisheries, CPUE at large spatial scales may be hyper-stable because of aggregating behaviour and serial-depletion, whereby fishers sequentially fish areas with no corresponding decline in CPUE. Obtaining detailed spatial information in abalone fisheries might mitigate this problem, allowing CPUE to be used more confidently in these fisheries. Here, we report on the use of newly-developed high-resolution Global Positioning System (GPS) data loggers in New Zealand's blacklip abalone (pāua, Haliotis iris) fisheries. Using these data loggers, we tested, via a fish-down experiment, if CPUE is a reliable indicator of abundance at a small spatial scale and over a period of months. In the experiment, hyper-stability at small spatial scales occurred at high abundance, but CPUE reflected the estimated depletion level at the end of experimental fishing. This experiment suggests that the GPS data loggers provide a promising avenue to track CPUE at a small spatial scale, and to assess spatial resource use in New Zealand's pāua fisheries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Zeller ◽  
Gabriel M. S. Vianna ◽  
Matthew Ansell ◽  
Angie Coulter ◽  
Brittany Derrick ◽  
...  

The Mozambique Channel region in East Africa has diverse marine ecosystems and serves as a migratory corridor for economically important species. Local and foreign industrial fisheries operate in the Mozambique Channel, but regional small-scale fisheries are the crucially important fisheries that provide food security, livelihoods, and economic opportunities for rural coastal communities. This study reconstructed and investigated trends in the fishing effort and catch per unit effort (CPUE) of small-scale marine fisheries in four Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) that constitute the Mozambique Channel, i.e., Union of Comoros, Madagascar, Mayotte, and Mozambique, from 1950 to 2016. Effective fishing effort for small-scale fisheries in the form of fishing capacity in kWdays (i.e., kilowatt days) was derived using the number, length, motorization (engine power) by fishing vessels, as well as an approximate human-powered equivalent for shore-based fishers without vessels, as well as days of fishing per year. Effective small-scale fishing effort in the Mozambique Channel increased by nearly 60 times from just over 386,000 kWdays in 1950 to over 23 million kWdays in 2016. Correspondingly, the overall small-scale CPUE, based on previously and independently reconstructed catch data declined by 91% in the region as a whole, from just under 175 kg⋅kWday–1 in the early 1950s to just over 15 kg⋅kWday–1 in recent years. All four EEZs showed the strongest declines in the small-scale CPUE in the earlier decades, driven by motorization and growth in vessel numbers impacting effective fishing effort. Increased motorization combined with a substantial growth in overall vessel numbers were the drivers of the increasing fishing effort and decreasing CPUE, and clearly suggest that continuing to increase the fishing capacity of small-scale fisheries in the absence of effective and restrictive management actions may exacerbate overexploitation risk.


2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (12) ◽  
pp. 1273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siquan Tian ◽  
Yong Chen ◽  
Xinjun Chen ◽  
Liuxiong Xu ◽  
Xiaojie Dai

Spatial scale is an important factor that needs to be considered in data collection and analysis in ecological studies. Studies focusing on the quantitative evaluation of impacts of spatial scales are, however, limited in fisheries. Using the Chinese squid-jigging fishery in the north-western Pacific Ocean as an example, we evaluated impacts of spatial scale used in grouping fisheries and environmental data on the standardisation of fisheries catch per unit effort (CPUE). We developed 18 scenarios of different spatial scales with a combination of three latitudinal levels (0.5°, 1° and 2°) and six longitudinal levels (0.5°, 1°, 2°, 3°, 4° and 5°) to aggregate the data. We then applied generalised additive models to analyse the 18 scenarios of data for the CPUE standardisation, and quantified differences among the scenarios. This study shows that longitudinal and latitudinal spatial scale and size of the spatial area for data aggregation can greatly influence the standardisation of CPUE. We recommend that similar studies be undertaken whenever possible to evaluate the roles of spatial scales and to identify the optimal spatial scale for data aggregations in the standardisation of CPUE and fisheries stock assessment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1063-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuo-Wei Lan ◽  
Ming-An Lee ◽  
Hsueh-Jung Lu ◽  
Wei-Juan Shieh ◽  
Wei-Kuan Lin ◽  
...  

Abstract Lan, K-W., Lee, M-A., Lu, H-J., Shieh, W-J., Lin, W-K., and Kao, S-C. 2011. Ocean variations associated with fishing conditions for yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1063–1071. In this study, the Taiwanese longline (LL) fishery data were divided into two types: regular LL and deep LL. Furthermore, we collected environmental variables, such as sea surface temperature (SST), subsurface temperature, chlorophyll a concentration, net primary productivity, windspeed, and the north tropical Atlantic SST index (NTA) during the period 1998–2007 to investigate the relationship between LL catch data and oceanic environmental factors using principal component analysis (PCA). After the daily LL was separated into two types of LL, the results indicated that the deep LL was the major fishery catching yellowfin tuna (YFT) in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. In 2003–2005, especially in 2005, the monthly catch by deep LL was double those of other years. The spatial distribution of the nominal catch per unit effort (cpue) by deep LL showed the maximum aggregation of YFT in waters with temperature above 24–25°C. The YFT mainly aggregated in the equatorial Atlantic, extending east in the first and second quarters of the year. In the third quarter of the year, the SST decreased off West Africa and the YFT migrated westwards to 15°W. Results of PCA indicated that higher subsurface water temperatures resulted in a deeper thermocline and caused a higher cpue of YFT, but the influence of NTA on the cpue of YFT seemed to be insignificant.


Oceans ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-476
Author(s):  
Iraide Artetxe-Arrate ◽  
Igaratza Fraile ◽  
Jessica Farley ◽  
Audrey M. Darnaude ◽  
Naomi Clear ◽  
...  

Yellowfin tuna of the Indian Ocean is overfished, and a better understanding of the stock structure is needed to enable sustainable management. Here, otolith δ18O values of young-of-the-year fish from known nursery areas of the equatorial Indian Ocean (West, Central and East) were used to establish a reference isotopic signature to predict the origin of sub-adult and adult individuals. Sub-adult tuna otolith δ18O values from Reunion Island were similar to the West nursery signature, but otolith δ18O values of sub-adults from Pakistan were unlike any of the nurseries sampled. Therefore, δ18O values from the Pakistan area samples were considered an additional nursery source for predicting the origin of adult tuna, using a multinomial logistic regression classification method. The western equatorial area was the most productive nursery for three fishing grounds sampled, with a minor contribution of Pakistan-like origin fish. Contribution of Central or East nurseries to the adult population was negligible. One adult otolith was analysed by secondary ion mass spectrometry along the otolith growth transect and results were compared with an isoscape approach to infer lifetime movements. This study is an important first step towards understanding the spatial structure and connectivity of the species.


2021 ◽  
Vol 869 (1) ◽  
pp. 012072
Author(s):  
A Rahmah ◽  
I Mardhatillah ◽  
A Damora ◽  
M Muhammad ◽  
N Nurfadillah

Abstract Yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares is one of pelagic fish that has high potential and economic value in Banda Aceh. Utilization of this resource in Banda Aceh is using purse seine units, with the number of purse seines continuously increasing. Therefore, management needs to be done so that optimal productivity can be maintained. This study discusses the estimation of catch and effort at maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of yellowfin tuna based on catch per unit effort (CPUE) and purse seine production in Banda Aceh during 2013-2018. Mathematical analysis was carried out using the equilibrium approach with the Schaefer model. The highest catch of yellowfin tuna reached 191 tons (July) and the average CPUE for yellowfin tuna was 0.796 tons/trip with CMSY of 2,482 tons/year and EMSY of 2,765 trips/year. From 2015 to 2018, the trend of biomass continued to decline and overfishing occurred during this period.


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