IMIS - Marine Onderzoeksgroepen

The project CORYTRACK aims to learn about the movement of Coryphaena hippurus (dolphinfish) juveniles in the Mediterranean. Dolphinfish newborns become vulnerable to the fishery at around 20 cm at the end of August, when they aggregate under moored Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) deployed by the artisanal fleets of Spain, Malta, Italy, and Tunisia. This species was recently declared a priority species in the Mediterranean by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean Sea (GFCM). Movements within and between FADs are important to understand catch/effort dynamics and better understand the realism of mortality calculations in fishery assessment. At the sub-basin scale, these movement patterns are key to elucidate individuals' pathways when leaving the fishing grounds in winter. In CORYTRACK, we will conduct a pilot study in the Balearic Islands to shed light on dolphinfish's small-scale (within/between-FADs) movement patterns of several size classes.