Tuna is the single valuable export fishery commodity in Indonesia, and Banda Sea is one of the main tuna fishing ground which belongs to fisheries management area (FMA) 714. More recently, the northern part of the Banda Sea has been preserved for tuna conservation since January 2015. The reason for this restriction is due to a preliminary of tuna spawning ground was adopted based on the scientific finding. Although conservation area has been enacted, information on the distribution of tuna larvae as a key variable for establishing conservation area in the Banda Sea needs to be improved through scientific findings. This study aims to provide the information on the tuna larvae encompassing the spatial distribution and tuna larval development stage as an important input to establish tuna conservation area. Tuna larvae data collection were carried out from several onboard surveys for more than four decades. Those study consisted of 21 surveys by using three types of gears to collect tuna larvae. Total of 143 stations was sampled from these surveys and tuna larvae were found in 57 stations. The average length of larvae specimens was 7.36 ± 0.33 mm. In general, tuna larvae found in the Banda Sea were in the pre-flexion, flexion, and post-flexion stage and larvae in pre-flexion stage found in the nearshore area. We concluded that the result of this study confirmed the hypothesis that tuna might spawn in the Banda Sea. Therefore, to strengthen this finding, studies on tuna larvae should be conducted regularly to clarify properly that the Banda Sea is an important tuna conservation zone.
Biological information of tuna larvae is essential for understanding spawning ground and time. However, morphological identification of fish larvae is difficult and questionable. Meanwhile, genetic identification is useful and helpful to confirm the morphological identification result. This study purpose is to confirm a morphological identification result with genetic identification and determine the tuna species exactly. Specimens were obtained from a survey conducted in the Banda Sea in October 2018. Samples were collected by a bongo net towed obliquely. The result of morphological identification is showed that the larvae having 37 to 42 myomeres, preopercular spine developed, moderate in-depth, moderate to large head and eyes identified as Thunnini larvae. The morphological result is supported by the genetic result, even though the larvae are not from the genus of Thunnus. The samples were identified as Katsuwonus pelamis, Euthynnus affinis, and Petenia splendida. The intraspecific pairwise genetic distance for each species of K. pelamis, E. affinis, and P. splendida is 4.4 %; 0.5 %; and 22.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, the average pairwise genetic distance between the three species ranges from 16.2% to 33.3%.
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