The plankton of the tropical western Indian ocean as a biomass indirectly supporting surface tunas (yellowfin,Thunnus albacares and skipjack,Katsuwonus pelamis)

Abstract

The biomass of available forage is a key factor in controlling the abundance and distribution of surface tropical tunas, as they have high energy demands and live in a poor environment. The direct estimate of this forage biomass is not possible with existing techniques. Thus we have investigated the lower link, i.e. the plankton organisms which are the food of fishes preyed upon by tunas. In a previous study, this fraction of the zooplankton has been identified, both by taxa and by size, by analysing the stomach contents of the fishes which are the preys of tunas. In this paper, we use 331 plankton samples from tuna fishing grounds of the tropical Indian ocean, to define the characteristics of the planktonic fraction actually participating in the tuna food chain. Main results are as follows: (1) Only 15–27 % of the total zooplanktonic biomass (> 1 mm) is actually accessible for the fishes preyed upon by surface tunas. This ‘useful’ part of the zooplankton is a well defined fraction of the planktonic population which remains in the 0–170 meters water layer during daylight hours. This part of the zooplankton accounts for a variable percentage of its total biomass the different geographic areas and represents the most relevant parameter to assess the potential richness of a given area for surface tunas. (2) From areas where fishing for surface tunas is poor to those where fishing is successful, it is observed that the total zooplankton biomass increases by a factor of 4 whereas the biomass of the ‘useful’ fraction increases by a factor of 7. This disproportionate increase is due to the facts that the potential preys of fishes preyed upon by tunas represent a growing fraction of the zooplankton and that a growing proportion of this fraction remains by day in the 0–170 meter water layer, therefore becoming available for the day-feeders which comprise most of the prey-fishes of surface tunas.