Population genetic of Atlantic bonito in the north east Atlantic and Mediterranean

• Main Authors: Viñas, Jordi, Ollé, Judith, Hajjej, Ghailen, Macías-López, Ángel David, Saber, Sámar, Lino, Pedro G., Muñoz-Lechuga, Rubén, Baibbat, Sidi Ahmed, Habibe, Beyah Meisse, Fambaye, Ngomsow, Diaha, N'guessan Constance, Frédou, Flávia Lucena
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Pesquerías; Small tuna; Centro Oceanográfico de Málaga; Stock structure; Atlantic Bonito (BON); Sarda sarda; Northeast Atlantic; Southeast Atlantic; Mediterranean; Population genetics; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10508/14952; http://hdl.handle.net/10261/326603

This study assesses the stock structure of Atlantic bonito (Sarda sarda) using the mitochondrial control region as a genetic marker. About 615 individuals distributed in seven locations were analyzed. Two of the locations were in the Mediterranean Sea (MD/BIL95) (Spain and Tunis), three in the northeast Atlantic (AT-NE/BIL94B) (Portugal, Tunis, Morocco and Mauritania), and one in the southeast Atlantic (AT-SE/BIL97) (Côte d’Ivoire). All these samples were obtained thanks to the participation of all authors in two Small Tuna Research Programs funded by ICCAT. The analysis of the genetic variability of the sequence of mitochondrial control regions depicts a clear heterogeneity among locations. The shared genetic pool that comprises the locations within the Mediterranean (Spain and Tunis), including also a sample from the northeast Atlantic (Portugal), is clearly different from the African locations (Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire). Moreover, these two African locations are also genetically differentiated between them. Morocco and Mauritania locations seems to be located in an intermediate situation between these two groups of locations. These results can be used to infer a management policy by ICCAT on the fisheries of this species