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Marine Fish Movement: home range sizes for commercially relevant species

Published Article

Global

Publication date: August 10, 2024

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Marine Fish Movement compiles home range data for 193 marine fish species and uses machine‑learning models to estimate ranges for 664 unstudied species. These datasets help fill major knowledge gaps and support marine protected area design and dynamic fisheries management for sustainability.

Subject Tags

  • Conservation Planning
  • Fisheries
  • Coastal

Abstract

Estimates of home range sizes for marine fishes are essential for designing and assessing the effects of spatial wildlife conservation policies and management interventions. However, in situ studies of marine species movement are challenging and often expensive, resulting in a paucity of data on the home range size of the vast majority of marine fishes. Here, we develop a set of new datasets, which we have collectively named Marine Fish Movement, that synthesises published empirically evaluated home ranges reported for adult marine fishes that interact with fisheries and leverage these data to estimate home range sizes for unstudied species. The empirical data contain estimated home range sizes (km2) for 193 species across 63 family groups from 179 studies published between 1971 and 2022. We use a random forest regression model to estimate home range sizes (km2) for 664 fished marine species currently lacking home range estimates. Marine Fish Movement can inform spatial interventions including the design and management of marine protected areas and dynamic fisheries management to meet sustainability goals.

Citation

Bradley, D., Caughman, A.M., Fogg, S.A., Cabral, R.B., Mayorga, J., Goodell, W., Millage, K.D. and White, T.D., 2024. Marine Fish Movement: home range sizes for commercially relevant species. Scientific Data, 11(1), p.865. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03728-9

TNC Authors