Habitat Characteristics of Skipjack Tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis)

in The Western North Pacific: A Remote Sensing Perspective

Robinson Mugo, Sei-Ichi Saitoh, Akira Nihira and Tadaaki Kuroyama

Fish. Oceanogr. 19:5, 382–396, 2010

Review:
Eko Susilo
Institute for Marine Research and Observation
website : www.ekosusilo.net
email : ekosusilo@kkp.go.id
 Introduction
• Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) is a highly migratory pelagic
species inhabiting all tropical and subtropical waters of the world’s
oceans
• Catches are highest from May to August off Japan by surface gears
such as pole and line and purse seines
• Migration patterns in the western North Pacific follow a north–
south seasonal cycle where the poleward movement occurs in the
fall–summer season
• This migration is also influenced by ocean currents and the fish
move along prevailing currents, utilizing them as foraging habitats
• Skipjack tuna are known to associate with fronts, warm-water
streamers and eddies during their northward migration from sub-
tropical to temperate waters
 The objective
• To study skipjack tuna habitat from multisensor satellite
remotely sensed environment and fishery data, using GAMs
and GIS.
Migration Route
 Environmental Parameter
• Skipjack tuna physiology and morphology play a major role
in determination of habitat and, by extension, distribution
– Swimming
– High metabolic rates
– Vertical movements ; night time depths ranged from surface to
30 m, whereas day time dives often were beyond 100

• Temperature has been the main environmental variable

used to explain skipjack tuna occurrence and abundance
– Chlorophyll concentration
– Ocean mesoscale variability
 Data
• Skipjack tuna daily catch data (CPUE) was determined in
tonnes per boat day periode March to November (2004)
• Weekly and monthly MODIS – SMI
– sea surface temperature (SST)
– sea surface chlorophyll (SSC)
• Sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) from AVISO
• Eddy kinetic energy (EKE)
• GAMs were constructed using the GAM function of the mgcv
package with CPUE as the response variable and SST, SSC,
SSHA and EKE as predictor variables.
 Spatial distribution of skipjack tuna fishing locations
The 20C SST and a 0.3 mg m–3 SSC contour are plotted on the respective images to emphasize
SST and SSC gradients.
Histograms of
environmental variables

sea surface
• 20.5 to 26C
temperatures

• 0.08–0.18,
Relatively
oligotrophic • 0.22–0.27,
waters 0.3–0.37 mg
m3,

zero to positive
• 0–50 cm
anomalies

low to • 0–200 and

moderate eddy 700–2500 cm2
kinetic energy s–2
GAM
plots
GAMs

Results for each of the 15

models (model, predictor
variables used to construct
it, the respective degrees of
freedom, AIC, P-value and
deviance explained)
 CONCLUSIONS
• SST was the most important habitat predictor for skipjack tuna migration
in the western North Pacific, followed by SSC.
• The oligotrophic side of the Kuroshio Front and the Kuroshio Extension
were important skipjack tuna habitat features.
• Meso-scale features such as eddies played a role in formation of skipjack
tuna habitat, although that role may not be as profound as that of SST and
SSC.

• SUGGESTION
– Longer term fishery data sets, with environment data
– Higher temporal and spatial resolutions