The goal of the tunascape project is to develop a three-dimensional ecosystem model of the tuna fishery of the eastern tropical pacific ocean (ETPO) that will describe how ocean circulation from…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a $900,141.00 grant to System Science Applications, Inc. for the Tunascape project. The goal of Tunascape is to develop a three-dimensional ecosystem model of the tuna fishery in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. This model will describe how ocean circulation drives the distribution of commercial tuna species like skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye. The project will leverage NASA's satellite imagery and global circulation models to better understand factors like hypoxic layers and vorticity structures that impact tuna aggregation and catch. This research grant, which does not have a set-aside designation, will run through July 25, 2021.

The goal of the tunascape project is to develop a three-dimensional ecosystem model of the tuna fishery of the eastern tropical pacific ocean (ETPO) that will describe how ocean circulation from submesoscale to global scales drives the spatial-temporal distribution of commercial tuna species (skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye). To meet this goal tunascape will address a broad range of questions: why does the shallow hypoxic layer that covers thousands of square kilometers of the ETPO appear to shape the distribution of both primary production and the catch of the commercial species? Is the shallow hypoxic layer simply the result of equatorial and coastal upwelling or is IT also strongly influenced by vertical compression of the planktonic and pelagic communities? What scale of spatial and temporal resolution is required to resolve vorticity structures that lead to the aggregation of the tuna and presumably their prey? Will this scale be achieved with the new ocean color, thermal, and altimetry sensors soon to be launched? The tunascape model will be driven by NASA S satellite imagery of sea surface temperature, color, height, and wind speed as well as output from its ecco 18 KM and 2.3 KM global circulation models. The model will consist of three components: the ecco global circulation model; a plankton model that will be a modified version of the 18 KM darwin model and of the 2.3 KM bling model; and an agent-based, population dynamics model of the three tuna species. The tuna model, which was recently completed as part NSF S fishscape project, is based upon the inter-american tropical tuna commission (IATTC) S 50-year record on catch and effort. The IATTC purse seine data provided to US was monthly species catch at a spatial resolution of 1 degree. For the tunascape project we have been offered access to data at submesoscale resolution (