Age and growth of three coastal - pelagic tunas (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Scombridae) in the Florida Straits, USA: blackfin tuna, Thunnus atlanticus, little tunny, Euthynnus alletteratus, and skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis

An insightful start to understanding a species’ role within an ecosystem is describing its life history. With overfishing and stock depletion in many of the world’s fisheries, there have been suggestions of ecosystem-based management, but there are frequently many gaps in the knowledge of smaller, less targeted species in an ecosystem (Richardson et al. 2010). Ecosystem-based management has been suggested due to the apparent ineffectiveness of single-species management, despite the fact that there is much to learn about the marine ecosystem as a whole (Botsford et al. 1997, Pikitch et al. 2004). Coastal-pelagic fishes are broadly defined as those inhabiting open ocean (pelagic) waters near the surface, but remaining relatively near coastal areas. Small tunas are typically defined as species that reach maximum size ACTA ICHTHYOLOGICA ET PISCATORIA (2014) 44 (3): 201–211 DOI: 10.3750/AIP2014.44.3.04