UC Santa Cruz researchers show how vessel-tracking data mirrored tuna roaming beyond their typical territory due to unusually warm ocean temperatures.
UC Santa Cruz researchers show how vessel-tracking data mirrored tuna roaming beyond their typical territory due to unusually warm ocean temperatures.
Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who have already used the vast troves of geolocation data from vessel-tracking systems to pinpoint where whales and other large marine animals are endangered by ship traffic and industrial fishing have now discovered that such data can reveal where ocean heatwaves are affecting the behavior of ecologically and economically valuable species.
In a new study published on December 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), UC Santa Cruz researchers describe how satellite-tracking data on fishing fleets from the global Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) reflected low albacore abundance in the north Pacific due to a marine heatwave in 2023.
That year is important because that’s when unusually warm ocean temperatures dispersed albacore more widely and made them cost-prohibitive to target. The following year, state governors requested a federal fisheries disaster be declared to provide economic assistance to the albacore fishery in light of the low harvests in 2023.
Read More: University of California – Santa Cruz
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