Evidence of cannibalism as a feeding strategy in bluefin tuna larvae from the Balearic Sea (Western

Researchers from IEO Malaga and Baleares Oceanography Centers and University of Malaga in collaboration with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA-SEFSC) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) american researchers lead a bluefin tuna larval trophic ecology novel study. The research recently published in the journal Fisheries Research analyzed the trophic behavior in mediterranean bluefin tuna larvae through stomach content analysis. Results describe for the first time the cannibalistic feeding strategy in bluefin tuna larvae in their natural environment in the spawning area of the Balearic archipelago through molecular identification of ingested prey larvae. This trophic behavior was evident when high densities of larvae were observed with a wide range of size classes. Equally, the results of this study revealed the discovery of microplastic fibers in the stomach content of bluefin tuna larvae, generating concern on the impact of contamination during larval development and its implications in the food chain. This study is framed in the project “Comparative trophic ECOlogy of Larvae of Atlantic bluefinTUNa from NW-MED and GOM (ECOLATUN)” financed by the spanish “Plan Nacional de I+D+I” (CTM2015-68473-R, (MINECO/FEDER), with the main objective of investigating, under a comparative approach and with different methodological approximations, how differences in feeding strategies can explain daily variability in the growth of bluefin tuna larvae and, consequently, in their survival and recruitment.

Amaya Uriarte, Carolina Johnstone, Raul Laiz-Carrión, Alberto García, Joel k. Llopiz, Akihiro Shiroza, Jose M. Quintanilla, Diego Lozano-Peral, Patricia Reglero, Francisco Alemany (2019). Evidence of density-dependent cannibalism in the diet of wild Atlantic bluefin tuna larvae (Thunnus thynnus) of the Balearic Sea (NW-Mediterranean). Fisheries Research, 212: 63-71.