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Environmental influences and ontogenetic differences in vertical habitat use of black marlin (lstiompax indica) in the southwestern Pacific
Citation
Williams, SM and Holmes, BJ and Tracey, SR and Pepperell, JG and Domeier, ML and Bennett, MB, Environmental influences and ontogenetic differences in vertical habitat use of black marlin (lstiompax indica) in the southwestern Pacific, Royal Society Open Science, 4 Article 170694. ISSN 2054-5703 (2017) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2017 The Authors. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Abstract
The black marlin (Istiompax indica) is a highly migratory billfish that occupies waters throughout the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific. To characterize the vertical habitat use of I. indica, we examined the temperature-depth profiles collected using 102 pop-up satellite archival tags deployed off the east coast of Australia. Modelling of environmental variables revealed location, sea-surface height deviation, mixed layer depth and dissolved oxygen to all be significant predictors of vertical habitat use. Distinct differences in diel movements were observed between the size classes, with larger size classes of marlin (greater than 50 kg) undertaking predictable bounce-diving activity during daylight hours, while diving behaviour of the smallest size class occurred randomly during both day and night. Overall, larger size classes of I. indica were found to use an increased thermal range and spend more time in waters below 150 m than fish of smaller size classes. The differences in the diving behaviour among size classes were suggested to reflect ontogenetic differences in foraging behaviour or physiology. The findings of this study demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, ontogenetic differences in vertical habitat in a species of billfish, and further the understanding of pelagic fish ecophysiology in the presence of global environmental change.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | black marlin, satellite tag, vertical habitat utilisation, telemetry, billfish, physiology |
| Research Division: | Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences |
| Research Group: | Fisheries sciences |
| Research Field: | Aquaculture and fisheries stock assessment |
| Objective Division: | Animal Production and Animal Primary Products |
| Objective Group: | Fisheries - wild caught |
| Objective Field: | Fisheries - wild caught not elsewhere classified |
| UTAS Author: | Tracey, SR (Associate Professor Sean Tracey) |
| ID Code: | 122345 |
| Year Published: | 2017 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 4 |
| Deposited By: | Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration |
| Deposited On: | 2017-11-10 |
| Last Modified: | 2018-03-27 |
| Downloads: | 90 View Download Statistics |
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