Longtail tuna catch in Indonesia, especially in Makassar Strait, is increasing, but habitat information remains scarce, posing challenges for management and targeted harvesting. Here, we aimed to examine the species-environment responses and the potential habitat of longtail tuna in the Makassar Strait. To do this, we developed a habitat suitability model based on the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) algorithm using fishery-based abundance and environmental data (sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a, salinity, and sea surface height) between 2015 and 2021. Environmental predictors were evaluated for multicollinearity prior to model development. Our results suggest that the MaxEnt model performed well in predicting the potential longtail tuna habitat. Monthly averaged fishing ground estimates revealed seasonal variations, with the widest in December (37,68 km2) and the narrowest in June (6,62 km2) for locations above a 0.6 HSI threshold. The model-derived environmental variable importance revealed the significant contributions of SSH (74.5%), and chlorophyll-a (22.1%) to longtail tuna habitat distribution. The model also identified the optimal ranges for SSH (0.58–0.59 m), chlorophyll-a (0–1 mg·m⁻3) and salinity (32.5–33 ppt). Findings from this work could offer valuable insights for fishermen engaged in fishing operations and stakeholders involved in the sustainable management of longtail tuna in the Makassar Strait.
Puspita et al. (Tue,) studied this question.