Pacific Bluefin Tuna Age Predictor
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±1-accuracy
72.81 %
CV
7.55 %
Predictable Age
4 ~ 27
Data Amount
3261
Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, is an high commercial value species, which makes it a species targeted at all life stages by several countries. However, the PBF biomass had decreased to its historically lowest level in 2010 due to overfishing. Although the PBF stock has started recovering in the recent 5 years, routine long-term monitoring of the age structure of catch and stock is needed so that the demographic changes of the PBF can be understood in a timely manner.
To monitor demographic changes, otolith, a calcium carbonate structure inside the inner ear of fish, is the most effective material for fish age estimation. Fish age can be determine by counting the number of alternating opaque and translucent zones. Although simple in principle, age determination is often faced with challenges of unclear nucleus and rings, crowding rings as fish grow older, and false annual rings, which makes the age determination process a difficult and time-consuming task.