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Horizontal movements of Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) in the Gulf of Mexico

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Abstract

We examined movements of Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) from the Gulf of Mexico based upon 42 pop-up archival transmitting (PAT) tags. Long deployments (including one 334-day track) revealed diverse movement patterns within the Gulf of Mexico. North–south seasonal changes in blue marlin distribution showed strong correspondence with established seasonal patterns of sea surface temperature and primary production. During the summer spawning season, blue marlin utilized outer shelf and shelf edge waters in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and longer duration tracks indicated overwintering habitats in the Bay of Campeche. Egress occurred throughout the year and was difficult to determine because some tracks ended in the Straits of Florida (n = 3) while other tracks recorded movement through it or the Yucatan Channel (n = 4). Our results indicate that Atlantic blue marlin have a more restricted geographic range of habitats than previously recognized and that the Gulf of Mexico provides spatially dynamic suitable habitat that is utilized year-round through seasonal movements.

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Notes

  1. Regional fishery management organizations such as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) are charged with assessment, monitoring, and management of these resources.

  2. ICCAT reported estimates of catch in tons from the western North Atlantic based upon spatially aggregated (5-degree intervals of latitude and longitude) data from all gear types. See Task II CATDIS data for tunas and tuna-like species posted at: http://www.iccat.int/en/accesingdb.htm.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the participation of the captains and crew of the sport fishing vessels in the tagging work, especially Bill Lyons, Mark Lyons, John Cochrane, and Brett Falterman. In addition, we thank Anders Nielsen and Tim Lam for their assistance with the state-space model programs. We are also grateful for comments of an anonymous reviewer, which greatly improved the manuscript. The tagging research was funded by awards to J.R.R. from the McDaniel Charitable Foundation. R.J.D.W. was supported in part by a Texas Institute of Oceanography (TIO) postdoctoral research fellowship. R.T.K. was supported by a TIO postdoctoral fellowship and a faculty development leave award from George Mason University.

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  1. Richard T. Kraus

    Present address: US Geological Survey, Great Lakes Science Center, Lake Erie Biological Station, 6100 Columbus Avenue, Sandusky, OH, 44870-8329, USA

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  1. Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MS 5F2, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Richard T. Kraus

  2. Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, 5007 Avenue U, Galveston, TX, 77551, USA

    R. J. David Wells & Jay R. Rooker

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Correspondence to Richard T. Kraus.

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Communicated by D. Righton.

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Table 2 State-space model parameters for tracks of Atlantic blue marlin from the Gulf of Mexico
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Kraus, R.T., Wells, R.J.D. & Rooker, J.R. Horizontal movements of Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) in the Gulf of Mexico. Mar Biol 158, 699–713 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-010-1593-3

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