Analysis of multi-scale effects and spatial heterogeneity of environmental factors influencing purse seine tuna fishing activities in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

Understanding the spatial fishing activity distribution characteristics is important for the sustainable development of fisheries. Spatial nonstationarity is always present, especially in marine ecosystems. To explore how marine environmental factors affect the fishing effort of tuna purse seine vessels, data from 2015 to 2020 on the fishing activities of these fleets and environmental variables in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) were analyzed. A Generalized Additive Model (GAM), Geographically Weighted Regression model (GWR), and Multi-Scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) model were applied to explore the drivers of fishing activity and the impacts of environmental factors on spatial heterogeneity. The results indicate that: (1) The MGWR models has the highest prediction accuracy and effectively reflects the spatial heterogeneity and multi-scale effects of environmental factors in a year. (2) Environmental factors exhibit significant multi-scale effects and spatial heterogeneity on the fishing activities of purse seine tuna vessels. Sea floor depth, salinity at 200 m depth and sea surface temperature show the greatest spatial heterogeneity in their impact on fishing activities. (3) Sea surface temperature, distance to port, and primary productivity and salinity at 200 m depth are key variables influencing the fishing activities of purse seine tuna vessels. These findings are expected to provide scientific and effective guidance for fishery management and sustainable development by assessing the spatial variations in fishing activities at multiple scales.

Quantifying the spatial nonstationary response of environmental factors on purse seine tuna vessel fishing.

To investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of environmental factors influencing the activity of purse seine tuna fishing vessels, data on fishing efforts of purse seine tuna fleets and environmental factors in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) from 2015 to 2020 were utilized to develop a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. The results showed that fishing activity was primarily concentrated in the area between 140°E and 175°W, and between 10°S and 5°N. The GWR model showed excellent fitting performance and was suitable for correlation analysis. The environmental factors had a significant spatially heterogeneous effect on the fishing activity of purse seine tuna fishing vessels. The sea surface temperature, primary productivity at 200 m depth, and dissolved oxygen below the surface had the greatest spatially heterogeneous effect and are important environmental variables influencing the activity of purse seine tuna vessels in the WCPO. This study provides new methods for exploring the spatial distribution of fishing vessel activity to support science-based conservation and management.