Buenfil-Ávila, A., S., Ortega-García & H., Villalobos (2024). Spatial patterns of billfish richness in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. 7th International Billfish Symposium. San Diego Cal., Estados Unidos de América, octubre 8 - 10, 2024, 46.
Aura Buenfil-Ávila 1, Sofía Ortega-García 1 y Héctor Villalobos 1
The adequate spatial management is one of the main challenges that the tuna fisheries currently faces in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). Understanding the spatial patterns of species richness and the variability of suitable habitat constitutes an important basis for this purpose, especially when endangered species are included. For instance, billfishes are incidentally caught by the purse-seine tuna fishery in the EPO, and some species are included in the IUCN red list. The present study aims to determine the spatial richness in 5 billfishes (swordfish, Xiphias gladius; blue marlin, Makaira nigricans; striped marlin, Kajikia audax; sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus; and black marlin, Istiompax indica) to identify strategic areas for future planning efforts and their potential ecological importance for the habitat of these species. The information analyzed corresponds to a database of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, with 1º x 1º resolution, and catches by type of fishing set: 1) floating object set (OBJ), 2) unassociated tuna set (NOA), 3) dolphin set (DEL). The spatial richness analysis was carried out under three different environmental conditions (La Niña, El Niño and neutral). The ecological niche of the species was also characterized as an ecological explanation of the distribution of the richness, for this, the MaxEnt algorithm was used and applied to the global presence of each species and environmental variables such as sea surface temperature, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a, salinity, and mixing layer depth. Preliminary results indicate that for NOA sets, the greatest richness is concentrated near the Galapagos Islands and the coast of South America, while DEL showed greater richness near the coast, at the Costa Rican Dome. Some high richness areas for OBJ indicator were close to the Corralito closure zone. It was observed that the spatial extent of richness tends to increase in events with positive temperature anomalies.
Palabras clave: billfish; Distribution; Eastern Pacific Ocean
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