Age and growth parameters were estimated for bigeye tuna Thunnus obesus Lowe, 1839 sampled from China longline fisheries in the central Atlantic Ocean from October 2002 to July 2003 and from August 2004 to March 2005. The von Bertalanffy growth parameters were estimated at L(infinity)=217.9 cm fork length, k=0.23 year(-1), and t(0)=-0.44 year. The total mortality rate (Z) was estimated to be fr...

Northern bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) were caught by purse seine boats and brought to a farm for a rearing cycle of 1.5 years. Mortalities occurred in the first weeks of acclimatization at the facility. Parasitological examination revealed plerocercoids of the cestode Hepatoxylon trichiuri embedded in the stomach mucosa. The larvae were found in 28.4% of the fish and the mean abundance was 3....

Surveillance for mercury (Hg), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) contamination in tuna products is crucial for consumer food safety. Hg, Pb and Cd contaminants were monitored in a total of 60 specimens of fresh little tunny (Euthynnus alletteratus) and popular brands of skipjack and yellowfin (Katsuwonus pelamis and Thunnus albacares) canned tuna commercially available in Tripoli, Libya. Direct Mercur...

Weused carbon and oxygen isotope ratios (dC and dO) in otoliths as a tool for identifying the nursery origin of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) caught in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay). Juvenile and adult bluefin tuna were collected over three consecutive years (2009—2011) using the regional bait boat fleet. Otolith dC and dO values of bluefin tuna were measured by mas...

Tuna are endothermic fish with high metabolic rates, cardiac outputs and aerobic capacities. While tuna warm their skeletal muscle, viscera, brain and eyes, their hearts remain near ambient temperature, raising the possibility that cardiac performance may limit their thermal niches. We used an in situ perfused heart preparation to investigate the effects of acute temperature change and the effe...

We here present an exploratory analysis aiming to seek whether the colour of environmental noise theory could help in understanding the intriguing reproductive strategy of Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT). A frequency-based approach based on spectral exponents, f with <0, is chosen and applied on 10 biogeographical provinces covering the North Atlantic. The major BFT spawning area, i.e. the Mediter...

Endothermy in vertebrates has been postulated to confer physiological and ecological advantages. In endothermic fish, niche expansion into cooler waters is correlated with specific physiological traits and is hypothesized to lead to greater foraging success and increased fitness. Using the seasonal co-occurrence of three tuna species in the eastern Pacific Ocean as a model system, we used cardi...

We examined long-term time series of stock status for the temperate tunas Pacific bluefin and albacore in the north Pacific, and characterized temporal changes in the stock status of both species through comparison with tropical tunas in the Western and Central Pacific. The temperate tunas appear to have historically experienced considerable fluctuation in stock status over a long period of tim...

The body temperatures (Tb) of nine yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) were monitored while fish swam in a large water tunnel at controlled velocities (U) and ambient temperatures (Ta). Monitoring Tb during step changes in Ta at constant U permitted estimation of the thermal rate coefficient (k), an index of heat transfer. In the yellowfin, k is dependent on both Ta and the direction of the ther...

The salted and dried product of tuna roe (bottarga) is a seafood characteristic of the Mediterranean area and exported all over the world. Samples of bottarga from bluefin tunas (Thunnus thynnus, L.) caught in the southwest Mediterranean sea were analysed. The samples were characterised by high content of marine wax esters (55-67 mol% of lipid classes), of docosahexaenoic (22:6 n-3, 25 w%) and ...