US: Genetic study provides data for improved bluefin tuna conservation and management

The results of a study on bluefin tuna genetics, intended to support better conservation and help aid in the creation of effective management plans, recently appeared in the scientific journal Molecular Ecology. AZTI Technological Centre, an organization that specializes in marine and food research, led the study and said the results will support sustainable management plans that better anticipate when changes in abundance or distribution occur. The study included more than 500 individual Atlantic bluefin tuna from different spawning grounds and aimed to determine the number of genetically distinguishable bluefin tuna populations and the ways in which distinct populations are connected. One of the three spawning grounds studied was discovered in 2016 in the northeast U.S. and has little data otherwise associated with it."For all these years, we have assumed that bluefin tuna, despite their ability to make large migrations within the Atlantic Ocean, remain loyal to spawning at the ...