Gulf menhaden ( Brevoortia patronus ) support the largest fishery by yield in of Mexico (GoM) and are a key forage species for many marine predators. While stock assessments indicated that overfishing was not likely to have occurred past, concerns been raised regarding possible effects fishing on their In this study, we used US Gulfwide Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) model explore predicted increase...

Large quantities of DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been historically discharged to the Southern California Bight (SCB). While these contaminants have bioaccumulated in sediment-associated fishes, little data exist on concentrations of these compounds in pelagic forage species that are the likely food source for larger predatory mammals and birds. The goal of the present study was...

Tunas are capable of exceptionally high maximum metabolic rates; such capability requires rapid delivery of oxygen and metabolic substrate to the tissues. This requirement is met, in part, by exceptionally high maximum cardiac outputs, opening the possibility that myocardial Ca(2+) delivery is enhanced in myocytes from tuna compared with those from other fish. In this study, we investigated the...

Caudal-fin-based swimming is the primary form of locomotion in most fishes. As a result, many species have developed specializations to enhance performance during steady swimming. Specializations that enable high swimming speeds to be maintained for long periods of time include: a streamlined body, high-aspect-ratio (winglike) caudal fin, a shallow caudal peduncle, and high proportions of slow-...

Landeira-Fernandez, Ana M., Jeffery M. Morrissette, Jason M. Blank, and Barbara A. Block. Temperature dependence of the Ca -ATPase (SERCA2) in the ventricles of tuna and mackerel. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 286: R398–R404, 2004. First published November 6, 2003; 10.1152/ajpregu.00392.2003.—Recent physiological studies on the cardiovascular performance of tunas suggest that the eleva...

Tunas (Scombridae) have been assumed to be among the fastest and most efficient swimmers because they elevate the temperature of the slow-twitch, aerobic locomotor muscle above the ambient water temperature (endothermy) and because of their streamlined body shape and use of the thunniform locomotor mode. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that juvenile tunas swim both faster a...

Characterizing the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems requires a deep understanding dynamics its populations biotic interactions among them. To this end, we developed mass-balanced food-web model regional sea in Northeast Atlantic, Bay Biscay (BoB), considering one most important anthropogenic disturbance area, fishing pressure. The was performed for whole BoB region first time. rep...