Tale of two tuna

A new paper appearing at PLoS One compares the spawning habitat of bluefin and yellowfin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico, and finds bluefins to have much more specific requirements than their yellow-finned cousins. Researchers used accidental bycatch reports as well as tracking data to determine that bluefin move into the Gulf in the spring months and seek out specific areas - notably continental slope regions in both the northeastern and northwestern Gulf. Yellowfin, on the other hand, are present in the Gulf throughout the year and show much more generalized habitat preferences.

There's bad news here for bluefin. The species is already in trouble - they were considered for endangered status this Spring. The region of the Gulf that they seek out, right about this time of year, also happens to be the region impacted by the Deepwater Horizon spill.