Discovering the movement and behaviour of the oceans' biggest fish

Many fish species are global citizens, ranging across oceans during the course of their lives, belonging to no single nation.

In 2007 the then New Zealand Minister of Fisheries, Jim Anderton, called for Pacific nations to work together to keep their tuna fish stocks from being catastrophically depleted. Tuna is vital to many Pacific Island economies and the Minister reminded New Zealand that it had a responsibility to "play our part in our corner of the globe".

Managing and conserving fish species that are so wide ranging is a tough task and one made tougher because we know so little about the movements and behaviour of these amazing animals. Now, exciting new technologies are making it possible to study them.

With the use of this technology, The University of Auckland's South Pacific Centre for Marine Science is currently collaborating with partners from New Zealand and other countries to discover more about the movement of some of the oceans biggest fish - marlin, bluefin tuna and stingrays.

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