Yvan Lambert, Nathalia A. Yaragina, Gerd Kraus and Peter J. Wright

Ministère des Pêches et des Océans, Institut Maurice-Lamontagne
C. P. 1000, Québec G5H 3Z4, Canada

Source - Journal of Northwest Atlantic Fishery Science, Volume 33: 115-159
ISSN-0250-6408

Abstract

Several biological and environmental factors have direct or indirect influence on maturation, fecundity and egg viability of marine fishes. The relationships observed between these reproductive characteristics and specific biological and/or environmental indices may provide alternative methods of estimating annual variations in the reproductive potential of fish stocks in the absence of specific data, or represent a more rapid and less costly method of monitoring egg production. The utility of these relationships to serve as proxies for egg production will depend on the predictive power of the relationships, the effort required to measure selected proxies, the scale of application, and the availability of pre-existing target data. We believe that alternative methods to measure reproductive output could be developed for some reproductive characteristics needed to estimate egg/larval production using data already available. This review, largely based on gadoid fish species, indicates that relationships between indices of nutritional condition (e.g. condition factor, liver index) and potential fecundity meet the criteria of predictability and low effort and thus are candidate proxies for measuring egg production. No relationship examined was a suitable proxy for egg/larval viability and age- and size-at-maturity. The development of alternative measures of reproductive characteristics of fish could result in more precise estimates of reproductive potential of fish stocks that could be used for hindcasting and predicting egg and/or larval production and viability.

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Language - English
Publisher - Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), Dartmouth, N.S., Canada
Publication Date - 2003
Publication Type - Journal Article
Descriptors -  age-at-maturity, size-at-maturity, cod, egg larval viability, environmental influences, fecundity, gadoid, flatfish, herring, mackerel, reproductive potential.