Tuna fisheries and populational dinamic in aggregated schools in the western equatorial Atlantic

Abstract

The present study aims to characterize the technolo gical features and the catch composition, complemented with studies on the age a nd growth and feeding of the target species in the fishery for tunas in associated schools in the western equatorial Atlantic. For this purpose, a total of 109 landings by the fleet based on Areia Branca, RN, were observed in the period from June 2010 to M ay 2013, as well as on board in nine fishing cruises in the period from February 2011 to December 2012. The age and growth study was performed based on readings of age rings of the dorsal spines and daily microincrements present in the otolith of Thunnus albacares, adjusted to von Bertalanffy , Gompertz and Logistic growth models, which were selected based on their AIC (Akaike 's Information Criterion) valu es. The feeding study was developed through the identification and assessment of food items present in the stomach contents from T. obesus and T. albacares . The fleet consisted of 9 boats, with an average length overall of 13.4 m, which use various fishing techniques such as handline, rod and line and trolling, combined with natural baits or lures. Landings amounted 691,533 kg, from which, the target species were bigeye and yellowfin tunas, as well as bycatch, species such as dolphinfish, blue marlin, skipjack, wahoo, rainbow runner and, even occasionally, species such as swordfish and triggerfish. The values of L were estimated at 175.13 and 171.6 cm for the obser ved and backcalculated data from the dorsal spines and 166.6, 171.14 and 155.38 cm, respectively for the pooled data, males and females based on otolith daily microstructure. The main food items observed in the diet of both predators were the following fish families: Myctophidae, Exocoetidae, Bramidae and Nomeidae. Cephalopods and crustaceans were occasionally observed. We can conclude that results provide essential information that will ass ist in the understanding of fishing activities as well as expand the knowledge on the biology of the target species.