Albacore (Thunnus alalunga) larval index in the Western Mediterranean Sea, 2001-2015

Larval abundance indices express standardized abundances of larval densities from ichthyoplankton surveys. For more than two decades these indices have been used to assess the trends of the spawning stock biomass of various species in the Gulf of Mexico, being incorporated into the population models...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Alvarez Berastegui, Diego, Ingram, G.W., Reglero, Patricia, Macías-López, Ángel David, Alemany, Francisco
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/323868
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/323868
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Abundance
Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares
Pesquerías
Albacore
Catchability
Fish larvae
Fishery sciences
Mathematical models
Pelagic environment
Spawning
Tuna fisheries
Ichthyoplankton
Biomass
Descrição
Resumo:Larval abundance indices express standardized abundances of larval densities from ichthyoplankton surveys. For more than two decades these indices have been used to assess the trends of the spawning stock biomass of various species in the Gulf of Mexico, being incorporated into the population models applied by ICCAT. Recently, the delta-lognormal models used for the calculation of the indices have been improved to incorporate the environmental variability and have been applied in the Balearic Sea to obtain a larval index for bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus). Here we apply the same methodological approach to calculate a larval index of albacore (Thunnus alalunga) from surveys conducted from 2001 to 2015 in the Balearic Sea, the most relevant spawning ground of this species in the Western Mediterranean. Results show a decreasing trend on albacore larval abundances and significant lower abundances from 2013 to 2015. This larval index, standardized for gears, sampling coverage, hour, salinity, date and sea surface temperature, attempt to provide information on the dynamic of the western Mediterranean stock of albacore, for which not much information available for assessment is available