Bruno Macena

University of the Azores | UAc · Institure od Marine Research (IMAR) and Institure of Marine Sciences -OKEANOS

Climate change is shifting animal distributions. However, the extent to which future global habitats of threatened marine megafauna will overlap existing human threats remains unresolved. Here we use global climate models and habitat suitability estimated from long-term satellite-tracking data of the world’s largest fish, the whale shark, to show t...

Global climate‐driven ocean warming has decreased dissolved oxygen (DO) levels (ocean deoxygenation) leading to expansions of hypoxic zones, which will affect the movements, behaviour, physiology and distributions of marine animals. However, the precise responses of animals to low DO remains poorly understood because movements and activity levels a...

Argyrosomus regius (commonly referred to as meagre), is one of Europe’s largest coastal bony fish species and supports important recreational and commercial fisheries in the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Demand for this species, and more recently for their swim bladders, has led to regional population declines and growing importance as an aqua...

Many predator species make regular excursions from near-surface waters to the twilight (200 to 1,000 m) and midnight (1,000 to 3,000 m) zones of the deep pelagic ocean. While the occurrence of significant vertical movements into the deep ocean has evolved independently across taxonomic groups, the functional role(s) and ecological significance of t...

The shortfin mako shark is a large‐bodied pursuit predator thought to be capable of the highest swimming speeds of any elasmobranch and potentially one of the highest energetic demands of any marine fish. Nonetheless, few direct speed measurements have been reported for this species. Here, animal‐borne bio‐loggers attached to two mako sharks were u...

Abstract We investigated, for the first time, the hitchhiker‐host fidelity of deep‐diving whale sharks and Chilean devil rays. We found that two of the most ubiquitous oceanic hitchhikers, the common remora and the pilot fish, are able to follow their hosts to bathypelagic depths, where they are exposed to extreme gradients of light, dissolved oxyg...

As regional endotherms, lamnid sharks can sustain high cruising speeds and perform frequent speed bursts. However, since endothermy comes with high energetic costs, lamnids may adopt different swimming strategies to manage their energy budget. Understanding such strategies is essential to provide behavioural and physiological context to their broad...

Background Biologging technologies have yielded new insights into the ecology and behaviour of elasmobranchs, but to date, most studies involve animal capture and restraint to attach tags. Capturing animals usually results in a period of atypical behaviour after release and is undesirable or simply not possible for large and vulnerable elasmobranch...

AEROS is a 3U CubeSat pathfinder toward a future ocean-observing constellation, targeting the Portuguese Atlantic region. AEROS features a miniaturized, high-resolution Hyperspectral Imager (HSI), a 5MP RGB camera, and a Software Defined Radio (SDR). The sensor generated data will be processed and aggregated for end-users in a new web-based Data An...

AEROS is a 3U CubeSat pathfinder toward a future ocean-observing constellation, which will operate in a 500 km Sun-Synchronous orbit, targeting the Portuguese Atlantic region. AEROS features a miniaturized, high-resolution Hyperspectral Imager (HSI), a 5MP RGB camera, and a Software Defined Radio (SDR) to interface with Argos, a globally distribute...

Knowledge of the three-dimensional movement patterns of elasmobranchs is vital to understand their ecological roles and exposure to anthropogenic pressures. To date, comparative studies among species at global scales have mostly focused on horizontal movements. Our study addresses the knowledge gap of vertical movements by compiling the first globa...

Background - Biologging technologies have yielded new insights into the ecology and behaviour of elasmobranchs, but to date most studies involve animal capture and restraint to attach tags. Capturing animals usually results in a period of atypical behaviour after release and is undesirable or simply not possible for large and vulnerable elasmobranc...

The increased risk of local extinction becomes critical for sharks depending on the narrow and isolated coastal habitats of oceanic islands. This includes large pelagic oceanic sharks that use such habitats as nurseries, as previously hypothesized for the smooth hammerhead Sphyrna zygaena, the least known of cosmopolitan large hammerhead sharks. We...

Pelagic elasmobranchs are key elements of oceanic ecosystems and must be preserved if marine trophic networks are to be kept in balance. Yet, they face intense fishing pressure that has been threatening their populations worldwide. Ensuring proper conservation management of these taxa depends on a better understanding of the strategies they use to...

Significance Global vessel traffic is increasing alongside world economic growth. The potential for rising lethal ship strikes on endangered species of marine megafauna, such as the plankton-feeding whale shark, remains poorly understood since areas of highest overlap are seldom determined across an entire species range. Here we show how satellite...

Seamounts are biodiversity hotspots for pelagic and oceanic species like the sickle fin devil ray, Mobula tarapacana. As such, this endangered species (IUCN) aggregates every summer at Princess Alice Seamount and Ambrosio Seamount in the Azores archipelago . The aim of our research was to investigate the aggregation at Princess Alice using a non-in...

106,107 ✉ replying to A. V. Harry & J. M. Braccini Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03463-w (2021) Our global analysis 1 estimated the overlap and fishing exposure risk (FEI) using the space use of satellite-tracked sharks and longline fishing effort monitored by the automatic identification system (AIS). In the accompanying Comment, Harry...

This article is a response to Murua et al.'s Matters Arising article in Nature, "Shark mortality cannot be assessed by fishery overlap alone," which arose from arising from N. Queiroz et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1444-4 (2019).

The Galapagos shark, Carcharhinus galapagensis (Snodgrass & Heller, 1905) is a large circumtropical species mostly found around oceanic islands. In Brazil, commercial fishing in the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA), located in the equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ridge, resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of carcharhinid sharks, and...

The present work aimed at studying the sicklefin devil ray (Mobula tarapacana) that aggregates seasonally in the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA). From December 2008 to June 2016, 827 rays were sighted through free diving visual census survey. From the total of the records, it was possible to identify the sex of 361 specimens, in whic...

Saint Peter and Saint Paul's Archipelago (SPSPA), one of the smallest and most isolated island groups in the world, is situated on the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge, between Brazil and the African continent. SPSPA has low species richness and high endemism; nonetheless, the diversity of fishes from deep habitats (>30 m depth) had not been previously studied i...

We report the first record of frigate tuna Auxis thazard from the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago , a small Brazilian group of oceanic rocky islands, located in the equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This finding constitute a range extension of the distribution of the species in Brazilian waters.

Devil rays are considered pelagic filter-feeders but direct observation of their foraging in the wild is very scarce and their feeding ecology is known essentially from indirect methods. On September 2018, a group of 16 sicklefin devil rays were observed preying on bait balls of longspine snipefish (Macroramphosus scolopax), together with their ass...

Seven scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) were satellite tagged around the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA), located at the equatorial Mid-Atlantic ridge, to investigate their vertical and horizontal movements. All sharks remained in the surroundings of the SPSPA over the course of the 120-day monitoring period, suggesting a...

Effective ocean management and the conservation of highly migratory species depend on resolving the overlap between animal movements and distributions, and fishing effort. However, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach that combines satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and global fishing fle...

Seven scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) were satellite tagged around the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA), located at the equatorial Mid-Atlantic ridge, to investigate their vertical and horizontal movements. All sharks remained in the surroundings of the SPSPA over the course of the 120-day monitoring period, suggesting a...

Biologging technology has provided scientists with unprecedented tools to investigate the ecology and behaviour of marine animals, but tag deployment and attachment methods have lagged behind. Electronic tagging of elasmobranchs still essentially involves implanting anchors or drilling the fins of restrained animals. On the other hand, most biologg...

The present study aimed to analyse occurrence patterns, relative abundance and habitat use by the sicklefin devil ray Mobula tarapacana in the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA), Brazil, located in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Sampling was conducted between December 2008 and December 2012 by surface surveys and tagging with conventional tags...

We describe the first record of a whale shark, Rhincodon typus, feeding in Brazilian coastal waters, and the first stranding record in the state of Bahia, Northeast Brazil. In April 2008, an individual of R. typus was observed surface feeding on Dromiidae crab larvae in the continental shelf off the coast of Bahia, near a gas platform. Other fishes...

A smooth hammerhead shark (Sphyrna zygaena) was found in Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago in May 2015. This is the first confirmed occurrence of a smooth hammerhead shark in an equatorial oceanic island and suggests a geographic range extension for the species.

Whale sharks are generally associated with environmental factors that drive their movements to specific locations where food availability is high. Consequently, foraging is believed to be the main reason for the formation of whale shark aggregations. Feeding aggregations occur mainly in nearshore areas and are composed primarily of immature individ...

Summary of TukeyHSD test results from the comparisons environmental variables per month. Output from TukeyHSD test of monthly comparison of sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll a concentration (CHL). Bold values indicate no significant difference (p > 0.05). (DOCX)

A new species of Anthiadinae, Odontanthias cauoh, is described from São Pedro and São Paulo Archipelago (SPSPA), Brazil, Equatorial Atlantic. The new species differs from its only Atlantic congener by a combination of several characters: pectoral-fin rays 20; total gill rakers on first arch 39; vomerine tooth patch with a posterior prolongation; pe...

The Black Kite Milvus migrans is a widespread migratory raptor found over much of the Old World. Vagrants have been widely recorded far from its main migratory routes. Here, we report the occurrence of a Black Kite in the Brazilian Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA) in April/May 2014. The bird remained for 32 days in the SPSPA, disappea...

Em 1831 Charles Darwin, ao avistar o Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo (ASPSP) a bordo do R.V. Beagle (Inglaterra), ficou impressionado com a quantidade de tubarões ao redor dos rochedos. A partir de meados da década de 50, com o desenvolvimento da pesca de atuns com espinhel no Oceano Atlântico, os tubarões passaram a sofrer uma crescente morta...

An abnormally high shark attack rate verified off Recife could be related to migratory behavior of tiger sharks. This situation started after the construction of the Suape port to the south of Recife. A previous study suggested that attacking sharks could be following northward currents and that they were being attracted shoreward by approaching ve...

The occurrence of the rays belonging to the genera Mobula (known collectively as the ‘devil rays’) and Manta is poorly documented in the eastern tropical Atlantic. Between August 2004 and September 2005, a total of 28 mobulid ray observations were recorded from geophysical survey vessels operating in the waters between Gabon and Angola. Water depth...

In this study, the occurrence of a pregnant Mobula thurstoni and six specimens of Manta birostris from the Archipelago of St. Peter and St. Paul were recorded for the first time. The description of morphology and morphometrics of the embryo of M. thurstoni was also reported.

The first record of blackfin tuna in Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (0°55'02" N; 029°20'42" W) is presented through catches effected by the operating fleet in the area.

The first record of blackfin tuna in Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (0°55'02"N; 029°20'42"W) is presented through catches effected by the operating fleet in the area.

The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago in the central tropical Atlantic, is an important ground of whale sharks that are commonly sighted throughout the year close to the fishing boats in the adjacencies of the islands. In sightings reported between February 2000 and November 2005, the lengths of the individuals ranged between 1.8 to 14.0 m. Th...

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