Synthesis of Bluefin Tuna Pop-Up Satellite Archival Tagging Study Data in Support of Spatially Explicit Movement Models for the 2015 Stock Assessment.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a requirement for the Synthesis of Bluefin Tuna Pop-Up Satellite Archival Tagging Study Data in Support of Spatially Explicit Movement Models for the 2015 Stock Assessment.

The services are to be performed during the period commencing upon the date of award of the contract and are to be completed by March 31st, 2016.

The contract will primarily support scientific labour costs associated with the analyses of the satellite archival data and the generation of movement tracks for the tagged fish (which total about 350 tags). The work will also involve a synthesis of the results and the description of the movements of Bluefin tuna along the Atlantic seaboard.

Mixing between the two stocks of Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABFT) is considered one of the most important problems facing the development of robust stock assessments for this iconic and high profile species. A major component of the available data that could help resolve stock mixing is the results of electronic tagging studies conducted by various research teams, including Canada’s IGS-funded deployments on Atlantic bluefin tuna. Pooling and analyzing the available tagging information from all sources is the best approach to provide return on investment of the millions of dollars spent on vessel charters, tags, and personnel costs over the years. The contracted work will synthesize all available information from three labs in Canada and the USA to describe migration paths, investigate inter-annual patterns, environmental associations, and examine evidence for spawning site locations. The intention is provide the most comprehensive summary of electronic tag data available, thus improving the basis for an upcoming stock assessment of bluefin tuna in 2015.