FIS
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in collaboration with the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), launched an experiment that is now providing scientists with data from pop-up satellite tags attached to adult yellowfin tuna in the Coral Triangle.
Researchers can now follow the movements of four fish — named Amihan, Badjao, Hagibis and Buhawi — via a species tracking map.
The map uses colour-coded coordinates to show how far the fish have swum since they were tagged off the western coast of Mindoro Occidental in the Philippines. Yellowfin tuna are now classified as fully exploited.
“The data we have gathered so far reveal that tuna movements cover an impressive amount of nautical miles a day, travelling back and forth in a general north-south direction from where they were caught and released,” said Dr Jose Ingles, Tuna Strategy Leader of the WWF Coral Triangle Programme. “While still preliminary, the results signify that to properly manage this yellowfin tuna stock, we need to consider similar or complimentary conservation measures along the geographic area of its movements.”