H. ARRIZABALAGA 1,*, J.

G. PEREIRA 2 , F. ROYER 3 , B. GALUARDI 3 , N. GOÑI 1 , I. ARTETXE 4 , I. ARREGI

1 and M. LUTCAVAGE 3

1 AZTI Tecnalia, Herrera Kaia Portualdea z/g, 20110 Pasaia, Gipuzkoa, Spain
2 Universidade dos Açores, Departamento de Oceanografía e Pescas, 9900 Horta, Portugal
3 Large Pelagics Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of New Hampshire,
Durham, NH 03824, USA
4 AZTI Tecnalia, Txatxarramendi Ugartea z/g, 48395 Sukarrieta, Bizkaia, Spain
Correspondence to * e-mail: harri@pas.azti.es
KEYWORDS
bigeye tuna • behaviour • environment • pop-up satellite tag • Thunnus obesus
 Movement patterns of 17 bigeye tuna
(Thunnus obesus) near the Azores Islands
were analyzed between April and May
2001 and 2002 using pop-up satellite
archival tags
Despite short attachment durations (1 to
21 days, 8.2 days on average), their
vertical movements revealed much
shallower distribution of bigeye tuna in
comparison with previous studies in the
tropical Pacific and tropical Atlantic
 Depth and temperature histograms
were unimodal, although overall depth
distribution during the day was deeper
than during the night due to daily
incursions in deeper waters
 Although generalized additive models showed
significant non-linear relationships with weight of
the fish and sea level anomaly (as a proxy for
variability of thermocline depth)

the effect of these variables on bigeye depth

appeared minor, suggesting that vertical
movements of bigeye in the Azores during the
spring migration may be influenced by food
availability in upper water layers