New Record and Range Expansion of Frigate Tuna Auxis thazard (Scombridae) in the Equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ocean
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New Record and Range Expansion of Frigate Tuna Auxis thazard (Scombridae) in the Equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ocean N. P. A. Bezerraa, *, F. V. Albuquerqueb, J. Figueiredo-Filhob, B. C. L. Macenaa, and F. H. V. Hazina aUniversidade
Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, PE 52171-900 Brazil Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB 58051-900 Brazil *e-mail: [email protected]
b
Received September 4, 2019; revised February 2, 2020; accepted February 25, 2020
Abstract—We report the first record of frigate tuna Auxis thazard from the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, a small Brazilian group of oceanic rocky islands, located in the equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This finding constitute a range extension of the distribution of the species in Brazilian waters. Keywords: Auxis thazard, first occurrence, Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, Brazil DOI: 10.1134/S0032945220040025
The genus Auxis is composed by two species: the frigate tuna Auxis thazard (Lacepède, 1800) and the bullet tuna Auxis rochei (Risso, 1810) (Collette and Aadland, 1996; Catanese et al., 2008). Two subspecies are recognised for each species: Auxis thazard thazard (Lacepède, 1800) and Auxis thazard brachydorax (Collette and Aadland, 1996) for frigate tuna and Auxis rochei rochei (Risso, 1810) and Auxis rochei eudorax (Collette and Aadland, 1996) for bullet tuna. The distribution of both A. thazard brachydorax and A. rochei eudorax restricted to the eastern Pacific Ocean while other subspecies occurs in the Atlantic, Indian and Western Pacific Oceans (Collette and Aadland, 1996). The Auxis thazard thazard occurs in warm tropical and subtropical waters occupying neritic habitats across the shelves of continents and oceanic islands. It is not known to perform extensive migratory movements but is occasionally caught offshore (Collete and Nauen, 1983; Maguire et al., 2006). However, Auxis species are commonly aggregate around floating debris and artificially made fish aggregating devices (FADs) which may provide both shelter and feeding opportunities. The association with difting FADs may aslo cause dispersion of Auxis-species over great distances in the open-ocean environment (Castro et al., 2002). Auxis are often caught offshore by industrial purse seine tuna fisheries but are typically not the target species in the fishery (Amandè et al., 2010). In Brazil, Auxis are caught by a variety of fishing gears, with purse seine and bait-boat fisheries targeting skipjack Katsuwonus pelamis and tunas Thunnus sp., while two latter groups accounting for most of the catches (Meneses de Lima et al., 2000; Menezes et al., 2010; Rangely et al., 2010).
On April 9th 2017, two frigate tunas were captured for the first time around the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA), an oceanic group of islets located ~1000 km off the Brazilian coast in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean (0°55′ N, 29°20′ W) (Fig. 1) (Vaske et al., 2005; Viana et al., 2015). The specimens were captured about 1 nautical mile west of the archipelago by trolling fi
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