Habitat analysis of the commercial tuna of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean

• DOI: 10.1111/fog.12263
• Publication Date: 2018-04-11T20:32:42Z
• Authors: Chen Hu; Daniel P. Harrison; Michael G. Hinton; Zachary C. Siegrist; Dale A. Kiefer
• Keywords: Yellowfin tuna; Thunnus; Skipjack tuna; Scombridae; Tropical Eastern Pacific

Abstract We have extracted information on the habitats of bigeye ( Thunnus obesus ), skipjack Katsuwonus pelamis ) and yellowfin albacares in Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean by matching spatial‐temporal distribution catch effort purse seine longline fleets collected Inter‐American Tuna Commission with oceanographic conditions subjecting matched data to Quotient Analysis General Additive Models GAM s). These analyses yielded following results. The defined analysis young fish differ significantly between two periods, one before after introduction aggregation devices FAD This was not true for older caught longline. speculate that these changes were caused extensive use s. Younger fleet a different preference environmental variables compared is be expected since tuna age groups sizes, metabolic capabilities swimming skills. Moreover, as revealed s, species much larger degree than those fish. Our results indicate fundamental differences fishing methods, targeted species, operating region fisheries. Specifically, occupy equatorial waters farther from coast where hypoxic layer deeper, more productive associated coastal upwelling, broad areas are underlain shallow layer.