Fishing operations to catch tuna on aggregated schools at the vicinity of a data buoy in the Western Equatorial Atlantic

Aggregative capacity of experimental anchored Fish Aggregating Devices (aFADs) in Northeastern Brazil revealed through electronic tagging data

“…This work offers a first assessment of the potential use of nearshore anchored FADs as a possible fishing alternative, in a region where the artisanal fisheries sector is in a difficult situation due to overfishing, consequently facing declining productivity of most exploited stocks, such as lobsters and demersal fish species (Silva et al, 2018). However, the results suggested that the studied aFADs may not be effective in aggregating pelagic fish of commercial importance, such as tunas and the dolphinfish.…”

“…In Brazil, the fishing for various tuna (Thunnus obesus, Thunnus albacares, Thunus alalunga, Thunnus atlanticus, and Katsuwonus pelamis) and non-tuna species (Coryphaena hippurus, Elagatis bipinnulata, and Acanthocybium solandri) associated with oil rigs, or even with anchored oceanographic buoys, have already demonstrated their use for artisanal fisheries (Carvalho et al, 2015;Silva et al, 2018Silva et al, , 2013, although no study has been so far conducted on the associative behavior of pelagic fish species around these anchored structures.…”

Chapitre 1. Tendances et diversité des écosystèmes marins de l’Atlantique tropical

“…Despite the purpose of these buoys is to collect oceanographic data, they end up acting as a Fish Aggregating Device (FAD), promoting the concentration of large schools of small tunas, mainly yellowfin and bigeye. According to Silva et al (2018b), soon after this practice began, skippers started to realize that the boat itself could work as well as a FAD and that they could keep the schools associated to the boats and, therefore, keep fishing away from the FADs. They also realized they could transfer the school to other boats, before moving back to port to unload their catches and, therefore, keep a "captive" school out at sea.…”

Age and growth of skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) in the western equatorial Atlantic based on dorsal spines analysis

“…However, part of the small-scale fleet based in northeastern Brazil has recently engaged in the fisheries directed at tunas in the vicinity of data buoys in the western Atlantic, where the skipjack tuna is one of the target species, along with bigeye and yellowfin tunas (Silva et al, 2016). This technique is locally named as associated school fisheries, where the own boat act as a Fish Aggregating Device (Silva et al, 2018(Silva et al, , 2019.…”