Discover the latest in ARF Pacific Albacore Tuna research.

These studies are peer-reviewed and conducted by scientists at independently funded organizations.

Dynamic Habitat Use of Albacore and Their Primary Prey Species in the California Current System
Barbara Muhling, Stephanie Brodie, Owyn Snodgrass, Desiree Tommasi, Heidi Dewar, John Childers, Michael Jacox, Christopher A. Edwards, Yi Xu, Stephanie Snyder, Thomas More University, NOAA Fisheries - Southwest Fisheries Science Center, University of California, Santa Cruz - Institute for Marine Science, Ocean Sciences Department - University of California, Santa Cruz, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Delta Jade Gonzales Barbara Muhling, Stephanie Brodie, Owyn Snodgrass, Desiree Tommasi, Heidi Dewar, John Childers, Michael Jacox, Christopher A. Edwards, Yi Xu, Stephanie Snyder, Thomas More University, NOAA Fisheries - Southwest Fisheries Science Center, University of California, Santa Cruz - Institute for Marine Science, Ocean Sciences Department - University of California, Santa Cruz, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Delta Jade Gonzales

Dynamic Habitat Use of Albacore and Their Primary Prey Species in the California Current System

Juvenile north Pacific albacore (Thunnus alalunga) forage in the California Current System (CCS), supporting fisheries between Baja California and British Columbia. Within the CCS, their distribution, abundance, and foraging behaviors are strongly variable interannually. Here, we use catch logbook data and trawl survey records to investigate how juvenile albacore in the CCS use their oceanographic environment, and how their distributions overlap with the habitats of four key forage species.

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A shallow scattering layer structures the energy seascape of an open ocean predator
Martin C. Arostegui, Barbara Muhling, Emmett Culhane, Heidi Dewar, Stephanie S. Koch, Camrin D. Braun, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Institute of Marine Sciences - University of California, Santa Cruz, NOAA Fisheries - Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Thomas More University Jade Gonzales Martin C. Arostegui, Barbara Muhling, Emmett Culhane, Heidi Dewar, Stephanie S. Koch, Camrin D. Braun, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Institute of Marine Sciences - University of California, Santa Cruz, NOAA Fisheries - Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Thomas More University Jade Gonzales

A shallow scattering layer structures the energy seascape of an open ocean predator

Large predators frequent the open ocean where subsurface light drives visually based trophic interactions. However, we lack knowledge on how predators achieve energy balance in the unproductive open ocean where prey biomass is minimal in well-lit surface waters but high in dim midwaters in the form of scattering layers. We use an interdisciplinary approach to assess how the bioenergetics of scattering layer forays by a model predator vary across biomes. We show that the mean metabolic cost rate of daytime deep foraging dives to scattering layers decreases as much as 26% from coastal to pelagic biomes. The more favorable energetics offshore are enabled by the addition of a shallow scattering layer that, if not present, would otherwise necessitate costlier dives to deeper layers. The unprecedented importance of this shallow scattering layer challenges assumptions that the globally ubiquitous primary deep scattering layer constitutes the only mesopelagic resource regularly targeted by apex predators.

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