Catch number of true tuna (Thunnus spp.) larvae collected in the Gulf of Mexico before (2007-2009), during (2010), and after (2011-2013; 2015) the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DWHOS)

Catch number of true tunas (Thunnus thynnus [bluefin tuna], T. albacares [yellowfin tuna], T. obesus [bigeye tuna] and T. atlanticus [blackfin tuna]) before, during, and after the oil spill will be compared to improve our understanding of the causes of temporal variability as it relates to the DWHOS. This dataset contains historical catch data from 2007-2015 collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Generalized additive models will be developed for periods before the event (2007-2009) to characterize habitat associations of each species, and then used to estimate the spatial extent of suitable habitats of true tunas (2010-2015) and identify areas of high quality habitat that overlapped with regions exposed to surface oil. Sampling data from 2015 are available in dataset R4.x257.227:0002.