Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillations drive the basin-scale distribution of Atlantic bluefin tuna

The Atlantic bluefin tuna (hereafter referred to as "bluefin tuna"), one of the world's most valuable and exploited fish species, has been declining in abundance throughout the Atlantic from the 1960s until the mid-2000s. Following the establishment of drastic management measures, the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science advances 2019-01, Vol.5 (1), p.eaar6993
Main Authors: Faillettaz, Robin, Beaugrand, Grégory, Goberville, Eric, Kirby, Richard R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Migration
Animals
Atlantic Ocean
Atmospheric Pressure
Biodiversity and Ecology
Climate Change
Earth Sciences
Ecology
Endangered Species
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Studies
Fisheries
Oceanography
Population Dynamics - trends
SciAdv r-articles
Sciences of the Universe
Tuna - physiology
Weather
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Summary:The Atlantic bluefin tuna (hereafter referred to as "bluefin tuna"), one of the world's most valuable and exploited fish species, has been declining in abundance throughout the Atlantic from the 1960s until the mid-2000s. Following the establishment of drastic management measures, the stock has started to recover recently and, as a result, stakeholders have raised catch quotas by 50% for the period 2017-2020. However, stock assessments still omit the natural, long-term variability in the species distribution. Here, we explore the century-scale fluctuations in bluefin tuna abundance and distribution to demonstrate a prevailing influence of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) to provide new insights into both the collapse of the Nordic bluefin tuna fishery circa 1963 and the recent increase in bluefin tuna abundance in the Northeast Atlantic. Our results demonstrate how climatic variability can modulate the distribution of a large migrating species to generate rapid changes in its regional abundance, and we argue that climatic variability must not be overlooked in stock management plans for effective conservation.
ISSN:2375-2548
2375-2548
DOI:10.1126/sciadv.aar6993