SUMMARY

• Main Authors: Barbara A. Block, Gareth L. Lawson, Andre M. Boustany, Michael J. W. Stokesbury, Michael Castleton, Aaron Spares, John D. Neilson, Steven E. Campana
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Thunnus thynnus; electronic tagging; Gulf of St. Lawrence; Canada; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.513.4748; http://www.tagagiant.org/media/SCRS2008092_GSL tagging.pdf

Fifteen bluefin tuna were satellite and archival tagged in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, during October of 2007. The objective was to examine the movements and spawning migrations of bluefin tuna from this Autumn foraging assemblage. Preliminary results from this experiment are presented. All bluefin tuna were brought onboard the vessel, irrigated, tagged, measured and released. Bluefin tuna ranged in size from 235 to 302 cm curved fork length. Three tags were programmed to pop-up shortly post-release, after 3, 30, and 60 day intervals, to demonstrate survivorship and short-term success of the tagging operations. The remaining tags were set for longer durations in order to examine where the tuna were during the breeding season. To date, of the six tags that remained on fish beyond the onset of the breeding season, three have popped up in the Gulf of Mexico and three in the western North Atlantic. A single fish that carried a long-term tag had a premature release program activated suggesting the fish died shortly after release. The tagging data support the hypothesis that strong linkages exist between the Gulf of St. Lawrence fish, the North Carolina foraging grounds and the Gulf of Mexico spawning grounds. To date, none of the fish has a geoposition in the eastern Atlantic management unit.