Bluefin tuna SOCIB-IEO 2014 cruise in the southern waters of the Balearic Islands
As part of the BLUEFIN Project that started in 2011, IEO and SOCIB researchers set off on the Bluefin 2014 cruise aboard the R/V SOCIB from 17th June to 5th July, 2014. The objective of this campaign has focused on obtaining oceanographic data, bluefin tuna larval abundance for the development of adult population indices, and identification of larval habitats and spawning areas. Larval indices allow a relative estimate of the evolution of the spawning of this species. The identification of larval habitats and spawning areas serve to validate predictive models used for advice on the management of this species. The availability of multiple sources of information from SOCIB operational capabilities providing environmental conditions and variability in the area of migration of tuna (Alboran-Balearic Sea) has been one of the major achievements from SOCIB Modelling/Data Centre Facilities and BluefinTuna team in 2014.
The application of satellite data, and the large number of drifters from the experiment ALBOREX framed in the PERSEUS project has identified the actual circulation of Atlantic water masses from the Gibraltar input. Part of this water has arrived at the Balearic Sea in two ways: directly from the Alboran Sea filaments derived from the main stream or by detached rotations of said stream up to the eastern coast of Algeria. This information, along with data taken in situ, will advance the application of hydrodynamic models for fishing advice and analyze the effects of oceanographic processes at basin level on the reproductive ecology of bluefin tuna. The importance of local mesoscale oceanography on these ecological processes has been demonstrated in Balearic Sea, one of the main breeding population of eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna.
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