RT journal article
T1 Exploitation history of Atlantic bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean—insights from ancient bones
A1 Andrews, Adam J.
A1 Di Natale, Antonio
A1 Bernal Casasola, Darío
A1 Aniceti, Veronica
A1 Onar, Vedat
A1 Oueslati, Tarek
A1 Theodropoulou, Tatiana
A1 Morales‑Muñiz, Arturo
A1 Cilli, Elisabetta
A1 Tinti, Fausto
A2 HistoriaGeografía y Filosofía
K1 biomolecular analyses
K1 fish remains
K1 historical baselines
K1 historical marine ecology
K1 Thunnus thynnus
K1 zooarchaeology
AB Overexploitation has directly, negatively affectedmarine fish populations in the past half-century, modifying not only their abundance but theirbehaviour and life-history traits. The recovery and resilience of such populations is dependent upon their exploitation history, which often extendsbackmillennia. Hence, data on when exploitation intensified and how populations were composed in historical periods, have the potentialto reveal long-term population dynamics and provide context on the baselines currently used in fisheries management and conservation. Here,we setup a framework for investigations on the exploitation history of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus; BFT) in the eastern Atlantic andMediterranean by collating records of their zooarchaeological remains and critically reviewing these alongside the literature. Then, we outlinehow novel multidisciplinary applications on BFT remains may be used to document long-term population dynamics. Our review of literatureprovides clear evidence of BFT overexploitation during the mid-th century ce. Furthermore, a strong case could be made that the intensificationof BFT exploitation extends back further to at least the th century ce, if not the th–th century ce, in the eastern Atlantic andMediterranean. However, a host of archaeological evidence would suggest that BFT exploitation may have been intensive since antiquity. Altogether,this indicates that by the currently usedmanagement baselines of the s, population abundance and complexity was already likely tohave declined from historical levels, and we identify how biomolecular and morphometric analyses of BFT remains have the potential to furtherinvestigate this.
PB OXFORD UNIV PRESS
SN 1054-3139
YR 2022
FD 2022-03
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26634
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26634
LA eng
NO This work is a contribution to the MSCA SeaChanges ITN and is funded by EU Horizon 2020 (grant number: 813383).
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 13-nov-2026