QUAESITUM

Quantifying Environmental and Social Interactions for Tuna fisheries Management

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Despite the social and economic importance of fisheries, quantitative approaches capable of predicting the spatial distributions of different fish species and their variations with respect to human activities are still missing. Recently, new proposals for an ecosystem-based fisheries management raised remarkable interests in the scientific community. These approaches demand answering fundamental questions on fish behavior in the presence of social and environmental stimuli, as well as interconnections among different fish species. This project will address some of these questions, aiming at quantifying the respective roles of environmental and social interactions in the spatial distribution of tuna, a topical issue for fisheries management due to the overexploitation of this species. We will base our analysis on acoustic data collected around Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs), a fishing gear employed worldwide in tuna fisheries. We will consider the role played by both intra- and inter-specific interactions to the tuna spatial distribution around FADs. This will require the development of dedicated analytical and modeling tools, capable of deducing social interactions from the experimental data. A multi-and inter-disciplinary approach will be adopted, based on knowledge on animal behavior, fisheries science, statistical physics and modeling. On one side, this project will allow answering fundamental questions on gregarious fish behavior in the presence of spatial heterogeneities. On the other side, it will contribute to constructing a quantitative approach for fisheries management. The Unit of Social Ecology offers strong expertise in animal behavior and ecology, concerning the analysis of both social interactions and responses to environmental heterogeneities. It regularly produces cutting-edge research on collective animal behavior, both at the modeling and experimental level. This combination is unique and perfectly matched to the proposed project.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Europe's fish biologists have investigated the gregarious behaviour of tuna around floating objects. This information will contribute to sustainable fisheries management.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Although tuna fisheries play an important social and economic role within the EU, their variations with respect to human activities are not fully understood. An EU-funded initiative based on an ecosystem approach to fisheries management sparked considerable interest in the scientific community.

The aim of the QUAESITUM (Quantifying environmental and social interactions for tuna fisheries management) project was to investigate the behaviour of tuna. This included their response to social and environmental stimuli, as well as interconnections with different species of fish.

Project partners aimed to quantify how environmental and social interactions influence the distribution of tuna, an important issue for managing a species faced with over-exploitation. The analysis was based on data collected from around fish aggregation devices (FADs), which are tethered floats or buoys used around the world to attract open-water fish such as tuna.

Researchers investigated the role played by interactions within species and between different species in their distribution around FADs. This required the creation of dedicated analytical and modelling tools that could deduce social interactions from analytical data. This approach was based on knowledge of animal behaviour, fisheries science, statistical physics and computer modelling.

The work conducted by QUAESITUM will lead to new ways for estimating the abundance of tropical tuna based on its behaviour around FADs. This will have a major impact on the wider fisheries management community and opens the way to new lines of research, where different abundance indicators, based on fish behaviour, can be obtained from field data.