August 2, 2014 — An unprecedented tagging study led by Gloucester-based researchers from UMass-Amherst’s Large Pelagics Research Center shows bigeye tuna have extraordinary range, traveling largely in north-to-south arcs from Georges Bank to the Brazilian shelf, a distance of more than 4,700 miles.
The cooperative-research study, funded by NOAA and using longline fisher FV Eagle Eye II out of Fairhaven, improved on two earlier studies by providing a more extensive record of bigeye movement and should provide the basis for more comprehensive research into the fish’s habitat, according to Molly Lutcavage, the director of the research center in Gloucester’s Hodgkins Cove.
“This is the type of fishery-independent study that everyone calls for,” Lutcavage said Friday. “These results point to the need to do more of these research projects rather than just depending on catch data. And we couldn’t have done this work without having longline partners so adept at this type of research.”
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