Skipjack velocity, dwell time and migration

Apparent velocities (distance travelled/time at liberty) of tagged Pacific skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis, observed over the 1978 to 1982 Skipjack Survey and Assessment Program (SSAP) of the South Pacific Commission (SPC) were very low (less than 10 cm s^-1in 90% of observations) compared with the minimum swimming speed of skipjack tunas of 70–100 cm s^-1. Such low apparent velocities are not biologically meaningful and therefore the extrapolation of biological properties from mathematical models, such as diffusion and advection models, based on the tagging data is difficult, if not impossible. This paper explores alternative approaches to the 1978 to 1982 SSAP data set. Dwell time and migration analysis indicate a north to south seasonal migratory pattern with the skipjack home range located along an arc from the Solomon Islands, through Fiji and Samoa, to the Marquesas. Ancillary evidence supports a purposeful rather than advective migration pattern that oscillates between southern feeding areas and northern breeding areas. many hands. Most of the previous analyses have focused on the issue of interactions between fisheries for K. pelamis that are in different political jurisdictions (Kleiber et al., 1984) and estimates of the size of the standing crop of K. pelamis (Kleiber et al., 1983; Kearney et al., 1984). Models of interactions between fisheries for K. pelamis in different jurisdictions (Sibert, 1984; Hilborn, 1990) have pointed towards the use of diffusion and advection models in studying fish movements (Sibert and Fournier, 1994; Sibert et al., 1995).