Abstract
The habitat and movements of a Pacific bluefin tuna were investigated by reanalyzing archival tag data with sea surface temperature data. During its trans-Pacific migration to the eastern Pacific, the fish took a direct path and primarily utilized waters, in the Subarctic Frontal Zone (SFZ). Mean ambient temperature during the trans-Pacific migration was 14.5 ± 2.9 (°C ± SD), which is significantly colder than the waters typically inhabited by bluefin tuna in their primary feeding grounds in the western and eastern Pacific (17.6 ± 2.1). The fish moved rapidly through the colder water, and the heat produced during swimming and the thermoconservation ability of bluefin tuna likely enabled it to migrate through the cold waters of the SFZ.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to the Fisheries Agency of Japan and the National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Japan, for allowing us to use the archival tag data, and to Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) for allowing us to use the OFES simulation data. M. J. Miller, Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, helped to improve the manuscript.
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An erratum to this article can be found online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10641-013-0127-5.
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Kitagawa, T., Kimura, S., Nakata, H. et al. Immature Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, utilizes cold waters in the Subarctic Frontal Zone for trans-Pacific migration. Environ Biol Fish 84, 193–196 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-008-9409-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-008-9409-8