Relationship of Northeast Atlantic albacore juveniles with surface thermal and chlorophyll-a fronts

When the spring seasonal warming starts, North Atlantic albacore (Thunnus alalunga) juveniles and pre-adults perform a trophic migration to the northeastern Atlantic, to the Bay of Biscay, and to the southeast of Ireland. During this migration, albacore juveniles are mainly exploited by Spanish trolling and baitboat fleets. The present study analyzes the relationship between the albacore spatio-temporal distribution and the upper surface horizontal fronts in their migration paths and destinations. For this, albacore catches from personal fishing logbooks from Basque trolling and live-bait fleets and daily MODIS AQUA Chlorophyll-a and SST products covering the period 2003–2005 have being used. Gradients have been calculated with the front algorithm proposed by Belkin and OʹReilly (2009). The approach used to study the relationship of catches location with frontal areas is based in the comparison of distributions of gradient magnitude around catch locations versus gradient magnitudes in a Monthly Occupation Area. The results obtained show that there is a high spatio- temporal variability of SST and Chl-a fronts in the area. SST and Chl-a fronts are not coincident in time or in space. However, there is a clear seasonal pattern of SST and Chl-a frontal activity in the area with a peak in July for SST gradient magnitudes and a peak in April for Chl-a gradient magnitudes. The relationship of albacore juvenile catches with high gradient magnitude areas is different according to the months and fleets analysed. In general, there is no evidence of consistent adherence of albacore catches to areas with higher SST gradients. However, results suggest a potential association between both fleets catches and Chl-a high gradient magnitude areas in August and September.