Habitat Suitability Models for deep and open-ocean commercial species

• Main Authors: Angel Perez, Rodrigo Sant'Ana, Lucas Gavazzoni
• Format: Lecture
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2021
• Subjects: Lamna nasus; Porbeagle
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5571863

This ongoing study focuses on the distribution patterns and drivers of deep-sea demersal and open-ocean pelagic commercial species in the SW Atlantic. Habitat Suitability Models have been structured for the valuable deep sea shrimps Aristaeopsis edwardziana , Aristeus antillensis and Aristaeomorpha foliacea , the royal crab Chaceon ramosae, the monkfish Lophius gastrophysus , and the endangered wreckfish Polyprion americanus . Species that sustain important pelagic fisheries in the South Atlantic were also chosen, namely the yellow-fin tuna ( Thunnus albacares ), the albacore ( Thunnus alalunga ) and the blue shark ( Prionace glauca ), as well as the critically exploited blue-fin tuna ( Thunnus maccoyii ) and the porbeagle shark ( Lamna nasus ). Species data comprise georeferenced catch and fishing effort records available from the Brazilian deep-sea fisheries observers program (2000- 2008) with a point-to-point spatial resolution, and the national tuna fisheries and ICCAT databases available from 1960 (spatial resolutions 0.5, 1 and 5°). All catch data were transformed into catch-per-unit-of-effort, subsequently modelled by Generalized Linear Models to produce species’ abundance indices. Environmental descriptors have been extracted from public databases (GEBCO, ETOPO, Copernicus and Hermes) and provided by the INALT model. Using Benthic Terrain modelling tools, bathymetry was transformed into variables that express different seafloor features, and used to segment it into structural classes. The total geographic area considered includes Santos, Campos and Espírito Santos basins. A more comprehensive analysis, however, will be conducted in Campos and Espírito Santo basins where a detailed environmental database was made available by the Brazilian oil and gas company, Petrobras.