Reproductive Schedules in Southern Bluefin Tuna: Are Current Assumptions Appropriate?
Open accessAbstract
Southern bluefin tuna (SBT) appear to comprise a single stock that is assumed to be both mixed across its distribution and having reproductive adults that are obligate, annual spawners. The putative annual migration cycle of mature SBT consists of dispersed foraging at temperate latitudes with migration to a single spawning ground in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean. Spawning migrations have been assumed to target two peaks in spawning activity; one in September-October and a second in February-March. SBT of sizes comparable to that of individuals observed on the spawning ground were satellite tagged in the Tasman Sea region (2003-2008) and demonstrated both migrations to the spawning grounds and residency in the Tasman Sea region throughout the whole year. All individuals undertaking apparent spawning migrations timed their movements to coincide with the second recognised spawning peak or even later. These observations suggest that SBT may demonstrate substantial flexibility in the scheduling of reproductive events and may even not spawn annually as currently assumed. Further, the population on the spawning grounds may be temporally structured in association with foraging regions. These findings provide new perspectives on bluefin population and spatial dynamics and warrant further investigation and consideration of reproductive schedules in this species.
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After reaching maturity at age ~10-12 years, adult southern bluefin tuna undertake annual migrations between feeding grounds and a single spawning ground in the northeastern Indian Ocean.
“After reaching maturity at age ~10–12 years, adults undertake annual migrations between these feeding grounds and a single spawning ground in the northeastern Indian Ocean [8, 9].”
From Spawning Dynamics and Size Related Trends in Reproductive Parameters of Southern Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus maccoyii (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
The Introduction places maturity at approximately 10–12 years and describes migrations from temperate foraging waters to a single identified spawning ground in the northeastern Indian Ocean. But it calls annual spawning an assumption of stock-assessment models, and the Results and Discussion report fish that remained on foraging grounds through a spawning cycle. The source therefore does not support the unqualified claim that adults migrate annually. (LLM, conf=0.89)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredSubstantial deployments of electronic tags on SBT have occurred, but to date tags have not been recovered from fish that have visited and returned from the spawning ground.
“While there have been substantial deployments of electronic tags on SBT [7, 38, 39], to date tags have not been recovered from fish that have visited and returned from the spawning ground (but see [9, 40, 41]).”
From Spawning Dynamics and Size Related Trends in Reproductive Parameters of Southern Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus maccoyii (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
The Materials and Methods report deployment of 90 electronic tags on southern bluefin tuna, supporting the substantial-deployments portion. The Discussion calls for multi-year movement records, but our copy does not establish that no tags had been recovered from fish after a visit to, and return from, the spawning ground. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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Cites
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Flagged first, then by citations
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Reproduction and larval biology in tunas, and the importance of restricted area spawning grounds
Muhling, B. A., Lamkin, J. T., Alemany, F., García, A., Farley, J., Ingram, G. W., Berastegui, D. A., Reglero, P., & Carrion, R. L. (2017) · Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries · doi:10.1007/s11160-017-9471-4 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Evans, K., Patterson, T. A., Reid, H., & Harley, S. J.
- Affiliations
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Evans, Karen
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2012-04-13
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- e34550
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3326032
- OpenAlex
- W2031597597
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eCite Digital Repository (University of Tasmania) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Australian Government
- Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Marine and fisheries research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ichthyology and Marine Biology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Fish Ecology and Management Studies
- Keywords
- southern bluefin tuna, Thunnus maccoyii, breeding phenology, spawning migration, spawning grounds, spawning timing, satellite tagging, Tasman Sea, population structure (demography), spatial dynamics, fish stock assessment
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Reproduction, Tuna
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