Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) are widely distributed across the tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions of the Pacific Ocean, yet their ecological characteristics, particularly their vertical habitat use, remain insufficiently understood across these regions. In particular, surface fisheries in the subtropical region tend to report lower skipjack catch compared to tropical and temperate areas, suggesting that regional catchability may be shaped by horizontal distribution of skipjack with horizontal movement and depth-use behavior. However, tagging studies using archival tags require fish recapture, and therefore, depend on active fisheries, limiting data collection in regions with low fishing effort. To address this, we deployed 50 pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) on skipjack tuna for the first time to investigate their depth-use patterns across regions in a fishery-independent manner. The results indicated possible regional differences, with skipjack tuna in subtropical waters appearing to use somewhat greater depths than those in tropical and temperate regions. Although the dataset was limited and potential effects of postrelease behavioral changes should be acknowledged, these findings suggest that regional variation in vertical behavior could influence the spatial distribution of fishing grounds in surface fisheries, highlighting the utility of PSATs for revealing links between ecological depth use and fishery dynamics. Simultaneously, challenges such as tag-induced effects on individuals and premature detachment must be addressed to enable long-term, fishery-independent ecological monitoring.
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