Capello, M., Soria, M., Cotel, P., Potin, G., Dagorn, L., & Freon, P. (2012). The heterogeneous spatial and temporal patterns of behavior of small pelagic fish in an array of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 430–431, 56–62.
Résumé: Identifying spatial and temporal patterns in fish movements can reveal the driving factors that govern the behavior of fish in their environment. In this study, we characterized the spatial and temporal occupation of 37 acoustically tagged bigeye scads (Selar crumenophthalmus) in an array of shallow Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) to clarify the mechanism that leads fish to associate with FADs. A comparison of the number of visits and residence times exhibited by the fish at different FADs revealed a strong variability over the array of FADS, with the emergence of a leading FAD that recorded the majority of visits and retained the fish for a longer period of time. We found diel variability in the residence times, with fish associated at daytime and exploring the array of FADs at nighttime. We demonstrated that this diel temporal pattern was amplified in the leading FAD. We identified a 24-hour periodicity for a subset of individuals associated to the leading FAD, thus suggesting that those fish were able to find this FAD after night excursions. The modeling of fish movements based on a Monte Carlo sampling of inter-FAD transitions revealed that the observed spatial heterogeneity in the number of visits could not be explained through simple array-connectivity arguments. Similarly, we demonstrated that the high residence times recorded at the leading FAD were not due to the spatial arrangement of individual fish having different associative characters. We discussed the relationships between these patterns of association with the FADs, the exploration of the FAD array and the possible effects of social interactions and environmental factors.
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Carpentier, A. S., Berthe, C., Ender, I., Jaine, F. R. A., Mourier, J., Stevens, G., et al. (2019). Preliminary insights into the population characteristics and distribution of reef (Mobula alfredi) and oceanic (M. birostris) manta rays in French Polynesia. Coral Reefs, 38(6), 1197–1210.
Résumé: In French Polynesia, both currently recognized manta ray species, Mobula alfredi and M. birostris, are observed. Despite being an important cultural asset and generating significant economic benefits through manta ray watching tourism, published data on the ecology and threats to these species in the region are scarce. Based on an 18-year dataset of sighting records collected by citizen scientists and during two scientific expeditions, this study provides the first insights into the population characteristics and regional distribution of the two manta ray species in French Polynesia. A total of 1347 manta ray photographs (1337 for M. alfredi and 10 for M. birostris) were examined for the period January 2001-December 2017, with photo-identification techniques leading to the successful identification of 317 individual M. alfredi and 10 individual M. birostris throughout the Society, Tuamotu and Marquesas Islands. We provide the first confirmation of sympatric distribution of both species in the Society Islands. Our results highlight strong and long-term site fidelity of M. alfredi individuals to certain aggregation sites (> 9 years for 16 individuals) and reveal some degree of connectivity between populations, with 10 individuals recorded moving between islands located up to 50 km apart. Analysis of photographs of individuals bearing sub-lethal injuries (n = 68) suggests that M. alfredi are more likely to be injured at inhabited islands (Maupiti or Bora Bora; 75% of all injured individuals) than at uninhabited islands, with 75% of injuries related to boat propeller strikes and fishing gear entanglements. Our findings emphasize the need for further research to allow for a comprehensive evaluation of population structure, size and threats to manta rays in this region.
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Chambault, P., Hattab, T., Mouquet, P., Bajjouk, T., Jean, C., Ballorain, K., et al. (2021). A methodological framework to predict the individual and population-level distributions from tracking data. Ecography, .
Résumé: Despite the large number of species distribution modelling (SDM) applications driven by tracking data, individual information is most of the time neglected and traditional SDM approaches commonly focus on predicting the potential distribution at the species or population-level. By running classical SDMs (population approach) with mixed models including a random factor to account for the variability attributable to individual (individual approach), we propose an innovative five-steps framework to predict the potential and individual-level distributions of mobile species using GPS data collected from green turtles. Pseudo-absences were randomly generated following an environmentally-stratified procedure. A negative exponential dispersal kernel was incorporated into the individual model to account for spatial fidelity, while five environmental variables derived from high-resolution Lidar and hyperspectral data were used as predictors of the species distribution in generalized linear models. Both approaches showed a strong predictive power (mean: AUC > 0.93, CBI > 0.88) and goodness-of-fit (0.6 < adjusted R2 < 0.9), but differed geographically with favorable habitats restricted around the tagging locations for the individual approach whereas favorable habitats from the population approach were more widespread. Our innovative way to combine predictions from both approaches into a single map provides a unique scientific baseline to support conservation planning and management of many taxa. Our framework is easy to implement and brings new opportunities to exploit existing tracking dataset, while addressing key ecological questions such as inter-individual plasticity and social interactions.
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Chassot, E., Kaplan, D., Zarate, V. O. de, Romanov, E., & Fonteneau, A. (2010). Comment on "clarification regarding the distribution of bigeye tuna Thunnus obesus in the Atlantic Ocean, including bristish waters. Journal of Fish Biology, 77, 1449–1454.
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Clavareau, L., Sabarros, P. S., Escalle, L., Bach, P., Abascal, F. J., Lopez, J., et al. (2020). Elasmobranch bycatch distributions and mortality: Insights from the European tropical tuna purse-seine fishery. Global Ecology and Conservation, 24, e01211.
Résumé: Despite bycatch of elasmobranch (sharks and rays) being a major concern in most fisheries worldwide, there is a lack of knowledge on their spatio-temporal species distribution, biology (life stage and sex-ratios), as well as their at-haulback mortality rate. Observer data from the French and Spanish tropical purse-seine tuna fisheries operating in the eastern Atlantic and western Indian Oceans between 2005 and 2017 were analysed to investigate elasmobranch bycatch. Data included 24 elasmobranchs species and distribution patterns of catch per unit of effort (CPUE) by species and sex-ratio were found to vary with life stages, areas, seasons and fishing modes. In general, higher catches were found in FAD-associated sets (>40%) than free tuna school sets (<17%) although this can vary depending on the species. For the large majority of species, a high proportion of juveniles were caught (30.7–100%), apparent at-haulback mortality rates was high (24.3–63.9%) and finally sex ratios was unbalanced (13.3–66.7% of females). Areas and seasons identified from these different components should be of interest for the monitoring and management of elasmobranch bycatches.
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