Sea surface temperature and chlorophyll-a condition of skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus Pelamis) catching area in Ternate Island marine waters

Abstract

Skipjack tuna is one pelagic fish that always migrates for a condition with relevant oceanographic factors for their survival, particularly for optimum sea surface temperature and chlorophyll-a. This study conducted with the experimental fishing method from June - November 2018 in the waters of Ternate Island in observation of the optimal condition of oceanographic factors, mainly SST and Chlorophyll-a in the distribution of skipjack tuna. Employing a polynomial regression analysis, the research results show that the sea surface temperature and chlorophyll-a parameters are strictly related to the distribution of the amount of skipjack tuna caught with correlation coefficient value (r) respectively of 0.646 for sea surface temperature and 0.565 for chlorophyll-a. The optimum temperature for the skipjack tuna in the waters of Ternate Island according to the research results ranges from 27.0°C - 30.9°C, while the optimum condition of chlorophyll-a is higher than 0.2 mg/m3-0.35mg/m3, and it seems that every increment of chlorophyll-a content in water indicates an increase of the amount of skipjack tuna catch.