Sailfish Travel to Vacation Hot SpotsField research study reveals seasonal patterns on sailfish migration
Data on the migration patterns of sailfish has been scarce, until now. A three-year field research study published in Scientific Reports Nature has provided groundbreaking data on the behavior, population connectivity, and biophysical interactions of sailfish, a species that provides nutritional, economic, and cultural benefits for artisanal fishing communities.
“Like us, sailfish like the vacation hot spots of Isla Mujeres, Cancun, Florida, the Bahamas, and South America,” said Dr. Molly Lutcavage, director of the Large Pelagics Research Center and Research Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, who led the team of researchers.
Isla Mujeres and the Yucatan Peninsula are major hotspots for sailfish. They feed here in late winter and spring, then embark on year-long migrations to various productive coastal regions in the West Atlantic, including an area off the northeast coast of Brazil. The sailfish that journeyed to Brazil eventually returned to the Isla Mujeres region.
The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation (GHOF), the Large Pelagics Research Center, and Virgin Unite funded the study. “We applaud the efforts of the research team and sponsors,” said GHOF Executive Director Greg Jacoski. “The findings are extremely important as we continue to fund scientific research aimed at the conservation of marine wildlife, specifically large pelagic fish like sailfish.”
Dr. Lutcavage and co-authors Dr. Chi (Tim) Lam, Benjamin Galuardi (NOAA statistician), Emily Chandler (Large Pelagics Research Center), and Captain Anthony Mendillo (Keen M. International Sportfishing) deployed 34 popup satellite archival tags (PSATs), each valued at approximately $4,000, on sailfish off the coast of Isla Mujeres. These tags enabled the team to construct waypoints for sailfish journeys, beginning to examine connectivity between sailfish fisheries hotspots.
“This represented the longest deployments of PSATs on sailfish to date,” adds Dr. Lam. “Electronic tagging offers information that can help us understand movements, migrations, and behavior without needing fishermen to recapture a fish. Migration data from these tags support better interpretations of fisheries-dependent data such as the catch, which stock assessments rely on heavily.”
Sailfish were monitored for up to a year, displaying mostly shelf-associated activity in the Yucatán current near Isla Mujeres for up to five months before dispersing to prey-rich coastal areas in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and along the South American coast.
Sailfish are managed under the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), with stocks assessed as overfished in 2016. Significant uncertainties remain in the assessment process. Dr. Lam notes that comprehensive data collection is needed for sustainable fisheries management.
“In order to determine controls for catch levels and other management actions, comprehensive data collection is essential,” Dr. Lam continues. “Our work here is a step in the right direction and was only possible thanks to our dedicated team.”
The full study can be viewed here: Full Study, and the scientific paper is available here: Scientific Paper.
