Common Ocean Sunfish

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Global warming is causing changes to environmental conditions worldwide, forcing populations to respond both behaviourally and physiologically to maintain fitness. On land, migration to higher altitudes has been observed, as well as phenotypical acclimation of species to maintain performance seasonally (Post & Stenseth, 1999). In the context of marine life, changes in upwelling and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are two of many factors which species must cope with as the planet warms (Bakun et al., 2015). It is currently poorly understood how many pelagic species will react to these changes, although studies suggest that populations may shift to colder latitudes as sea surface temperatures increase, and species will exploit new locations of …show more content…

Widely recognised for its huge size and unique morphology, the sunfish has been described as a ‘swimming head’ which can exceed three metres in length (Palsson & Astthorsson, 2016). The sunfish is known to make regular dives to around 150m to feed on gelatinous zooplankton, returning to the surface to bask in the sun and regain body temperature (Nakamura, Goto, & Sato, 2015). This mode of behavioural thermoregulation may make it especially susceptible to changing sea surface temperatures. Additionally, regular sightings of sunfish have been demonstrated to coincide with areas of upwelling, likely due to the increased feeding opportunities presented by these areas (Thys, Ryan, Weng, Erdmann, & Tresnati, 2016). Despite this, no long-term studies investigating the connection between sea surface temperature, upwelling and sunfish movements have been performed. As sunfish make up an immense proportion of bycatch worldwide – up to 95% in the Mediterranean drift gillnet fishery (Dewar et al., 2010) – it is crucial to understand how their distribution will change with global warming, which will allow better management of …show more content…

As these factors change, the study will provide a unique set of data describing the long term ecological response of a population to climate change. This will provide a framework for modelling how both sunfish and other pelagic species react to global changes in sea surface temperatures and upwelling, allowing possible implementation of international management strategies to account for shifts in population distributions. Such policies are vital for the maintenance of sustainable fisheries, and the data from this study will provide an excellent starting

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