Ensemble Three-Dimensional Habitat Modeling of Indian Ocean Immature Albacore Tuna (Thunnus alalunga) Using Remote Sensing Data

Abstract

This study evaluated the vertical distribution of immature albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) in the Indian Ocean as a function of various environmental parameters. Albacore tuna fishing data were gathered from the logbooks of large-sized Taiwanese longline vessels. Fishery and environmental data for the period from 1998 to 2016 were collected. In addition to the surface variable, the most influential vertical temperature, dissolved oxygen (OXY), chlorophyll, and salinity layers were found at various depths (i.e., 5, 26, and 53 m for SST; 200, 244, and 147 m for OXY; 508, 628, and 411 for SSCI; and 411, 508, and 773 m for SSS) among 20 vertical layers based on Akaike criterion information value of generalized linear model. Relative to the 20 vertical layers base models, these layers had the lowest Akaike information criteria. For the correlation between the standardized and predicted catch per unit effort (CPUE), the correlation values for the generalized linear model (GLM), generalized additive model (GAM), boosted regression tree (BRT), and random forest (RF) model were 0.798, 0.832, 0.841, and 0.856, respectively. The GAM-, BRT-, and RF-derived full models were selected, whereas the GLM-derived full model was excluded because its correlation value was the lowest among the four models. From March to September, a higher immature albacore standardized CPUE was mainly observed from 30°S to 40°S. A northward shift was observed after September, and the standardized CPUE was mainly concentrated at the south coast of Madagascar from November to January.