Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Bluefin tuna get around. The highly prized fish traverse the Atlantic with a disregard for international boundaries that has set nations quarrelling over who gets to fish and who sets the limits. Now new research on the whereabouts of Atlantic bluefins could provide the hard numbers needed for developing effective strategies to save the fisheries from collapse.
“This is a substantial step forward in providing a comprehensive data set for management,” says Michael Sissenwine, former director of scientific programs and chief science adviser for the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and now at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
Because Atlantic bluefins have spawning grounds on both sides of the Atlantic (and perhaps in the middle, some scientists say) management agencies have treated them as two distinct populations: western bluefins that spawn in and near the Gulf of Mexico, and eastern bluefins that spawn in the Mediterranean. While scientists have known for several years that these populations mix, their socializing hasn’t been incorporated into management strategies.
The new study, published online in Science October 2, reports that substantial numbers of juveniles from the Mediterranean spend time in waters off the U.S. eastern coast. The western Atlantic population is already thought to be considerably smaller than the Mediterranean-based stock.