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Environmental preferences of bigeye tuna, Thunnus obesus, in the Indian Ocean: an application to a longline fishery

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Abstract

A survey of the fishing grounds for bigeye tuna, Thunnus obesus, in the Indian Ocean was carried out for a better understanding of the environmental preferences of bigeye tuna in a longline fishery. Catch rates of bigeye tuna were analyzed with respect to the ranges of depth, temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a, and dissolved oxygen. The optimum capture depth, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen range of bigeye tuna were identified as 240.0 m to 279.9 m, 12.0°C to 13.9°C, and 2.00 mg·L−1 to 2.99 mg·L−1, respectively, in the study area of Indian Ocean. Neither salinity nor chlorophyll-a had a detectable effect on the vertical distribution of the adult bigeye tuna. The dissolved oxygen is the principal factor limiting the vertical distribution of bigeye tuna.

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Acknowledgements

The project is funded by Ministry of Agriculture of the Peoples Republic of China under the Project of Fishery Exploration in High Seas in 2005 (Project No.Z05-30) and the Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (Project No. S30702). We thank the general manager Jingmin Fang, vice general manager Fuxiong Huang, and the crews of the tuna longliners of the Guangyuang Fishery Group, Ltd., of Guangdong province for their support of this project. Thanks also go to Michael G. Hinton and William H. Bayliff of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission and to Yong Chen of the University of Maine for reviewing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Key Laboratory of Shanghai Education Commission for Oceanic Fishery Resources Exploitation, The Key Laboratory of Sustainable Exploitation of Oceanic Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Education, College of Marine Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, 999 Huchenghuan Road, Lingangxincheng, Shanghai, 201306, China

    Liming Song, Ji Zhou, Yingqi Zhou, Wenxin Jiang & Jiaqiao Wang

  2. National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Fisheries Research Agency (FRA), 5-7-1 Orido, Shimizu, Shizuoka, Japan

    Tom Nishida

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  1. Liming Song
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Correspondence to Liming Song.

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Song, L., Zhou, J., Zhou, Y. et al. Environmental preferences of bigeye tuna, Thunnus obesus, in the Indian Ocean: an application to a longline fishery. Environ Biol Fish 85, 153–171 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-009-9474-7

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