Bluefin Blitz 2021
Tidings | Sep 8, 2021
by Gulf of Maine Research Institute
As we start winding down this year’s hectic field season, we’d like to share a cool milestone: this summer, GMRI Research Scientist Dr. Walt Golet and his Pelagic Fisheries lab surpassed over 11,000 bluefin tuna samples collected to date. At first glance, that number might not seem very large, but collecting that many samples of a highly migratory species like Atlantic tuna is no easy task. It's also enough data to provide invaluable information to researchers and decision makers working to better understand and manage the charismatic species.
Because bluefin tuna travel such long distances, and so quickly, they can be a hard species to pin down and study. That's created gaps in our understanding of their life histories. Dr. Golet and his team are helping to fill in those gaps by establishing a large bluefin sampling network in collaboration with fishermen and dealers stretching from Maine to North Carolina.. The sampling network sends the heads of bluefin tuna to Dr. Golet's lab at GMRI. His lab then analyzes the tunas' muscle tissues and ear bones to learn where they came from, where they migrated, how fast they travelled, and how long they lived.
Information like that is fundamentally linked to the management of the bluefin tuna fishery. The efforts required to procure that data doesn't go unnoticed by GMRI Senior Research Scientist Dr. Lisa Kerr, who is currently using data from Dr. Golet's lab to conduct a study that seeks to integrate climate impacts into Atlantic bluefin tuna stock assessments.
It cannot be overstated what an important role this data collections plays in both the national and international management of bluefin tuna. It is an incredible amount of effort to collect these samples collaboratively with participants in the fishery.
Lisa Kerr, Ph.D. Associate Professor, UMaine School of Marine Sciences
