FN Archimer Export Format PT J TI Behavior of skipjack ( Katsuwonus pelamis ), yellowfin ( Thunnus albacares ), and bigeye ( T. obsesus ) tunas associated with drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) in the Indian Ocean, assessed through acoustic telemetry BT AF Govinden, Rodney Capello, Manuela Forget, Fabien Filmalter, John D. DAGORN, Laurent AS 1:1;2:2;3:2;4:3;5:2; FF 1:;2:;3:;4:;5:; C1 Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) Victoria, Mahé ,Seychelles MARBEC, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, France South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB Grahamstown, South Africa C2 SEYCHELLES FISHING AUTHORITY (SFA), SEYCHELLES IRD, FRANCE SAIAB, SOUTH AFRICA UM MARBEC IN WOS Cotutelle UMR copubli-int-hors-europe copubli-sud IF 2.67 TC 6 UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00686/79836/82838.pdf LA English DT Article DE ;acoustic telemetry;associative behavior;bigeye tuna;fish aggregating devices;Indian Ocean;skipjack tuna;yellowfin tuna AB We investigated the associative behavior of skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis), yellowfin (Thunnus albacares), and bigeye (T. obsesus) tuna within multi‐species aggregations associated with drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) in two different regions of the western Indian Ocean: the Mozambique Channel and the Seychelles, using acoustic telemetry. We documented the residence and absence times of tunas at two temporal scales (coarse and fine scale) and made comparisons between regions. A total of 56 tunas were tagged and released at 7 different dFADs (4 in the Mozambique Channel and 3 in the Seychelles) during four research cruises. We recorded the first observations of skipjack tuna making excursions of more than 24 hours away from dFADs before returning and confirmed findings of other studies showing that yellowfin tuna can make long excursions (4.07 days) before returning to their home dFADs. Combining both studied regions, average residence times were 7.59 days (min 0.03; max 16.49), 6.64 days (min 0.01; max 26.72), and 4.58 days (min 0.09; max 18.33) for bigeye, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna, respectively. Exponential models best fitted the residence times for all three tuna species, indicating time‐independent probabilities of departure from dFADs. For yellowfin tuna, at a coarse temporal scale, no regional differences were observed in the residence times. However, at a fine temporal scale, regional differences were apparent in both residence and absence times. This study provides new information on the associative behavior of tunas at dFADs in the Indian Ocean which is key to improving the science‐based management of dFADs. PY 2021 PD SEP SO Fisheries Oceanography SN 1054-6006 PU Wiley VL 30 IS 5 UT 000632969800001 BP 542 EP 555 DI 10.1111/fog.12536 ID 79836 ER EF