| More than one hundred long-term time-series of bluefin tuna catches from the ancestral Mediterranean and Atlantic trap fisheries are used to (1) estimate historical range of BFT yields in the Mediterranean and adjacent Atlantic and (2) investigate spatial and temporal patterns of fluctuations in trap catches. Mean historical catches were around 110 000 tunas/year (± 50 000), i.e. 15 000 tons/year (∈[7 000;25 000]). Fluctuations in trap catches are of large magnitude, periods of high abundance being up to seven times higher than those of low abundance. More interesting was the occurrence of 100-year-long periodic fluctuations as well as 20-year cycles. These medium- to long-term fluctuations, representing more than 50% of the total variability in the... |
