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Unravelling the population structure of Trachurus picturatus across the NE Atlantic using otolith fingerprinting analyses

Cláudia Moreira1, 2*, Elsa Froufe1, Paulo Vaz-Pires1, 2, Raül Triay-Portella3, Jorge P. Castro4 and Alberto T. Correia1, 5*
  • 1 Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research, Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal
  • 2 Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal
  • 3 Instituto Universitario de Estudios Ambientales y Recursos Naturales (i-UNAT), Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
  • 4 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Oviedo, Federico Garcia Lorca nº8, Spain
  • 5 Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde da Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Portugal

The blue jack mackerel Trachurus picturatus is a commercially important fish species in the NE Atlantic, especially in the Macaronesia region. Even though the species does not seem to be threatened, local landings in the Macaronesian regions have registered significant decreases over the last years. The cause for these oscillations is still unclear, although some anthropogenic factors, such as overfishing or climate changes, can be pointed out as the main reasons. In situations where information is scarce, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) recommend that fishery management should take precautionary actions to the sustainable management of fish stocks (FAO 2018, ICES 2018). Recently a few studies, using complimentary natural tags (e.g. body morphology, genetics and otolith shape analyses) have raised several hypotheses regarding the population structure and connectivity of this species. To understand if T. picturatus in the NE Atlantic presents a metapopulational structure, with a differential contribution of the existent recruitment areas for the adult population target by the fisheries, is of ultimate importance. In this study, 120 individuals 2+ were collected in 2013, 2016 and 2019 across the NE Atlantic at the Macaronesia Islands of Azores, Madeira and Canaries, and one location at Portugal mainland - Peniche. The otolith elemental fingerprint for each location was analysed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Laser Ablation (LA-ICP-MS). The variation in otolith elemental composition in the core and edge was examined to estimate migration patterns and degrees of connectivity across regional fishing grounds. Element-calcium ratios were integrated with annual increment growth measurements to produce profiles of inter-regional movement. The new data about the T. picturatus fish-life cycle is used to suggest appropriate fisheries management actions.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by FCT (SFRH/BD/111133/2015 to CM), NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000035 (MARINFO) and the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2019 in the framework of the programme PT2020. The authors wish to thank Mónica Felicio (IPMA Matosinhos), Ana Paixão (IMAS/DOP), João Delgado (DRP-M/SRARN) and Fernando Tuya (IU-ECOAQUA, ULPGC) for the assistance in the fish acquisition from artisanal fishermen and fish sampling.

References

FAO (2018) The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 - Meeting the sustainable development goals. Rome. ICES (2018) Report of the Working Group on Southern Horse Mackerel, Anchovy and Sardine (WGHANSA), 26-30 June 2018, Lisbon, Portugal. ICES CM 2018/ACOM:17 Report. 639 pp. INE-Instituto Nacional de Estatística, I.P. (2018) Estatísticas da Pesca 2017. Lisboa-Portugal.

Keywords: Blue jack mackerel, fishery management, laser ablation, connectivity patterns, Macaronesia

Conference: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 Sep - 6 Sep, 2019.

Presentation Type: Oral

Topic: OTOLITHS AS A TOOL TO STUDY FISH LIFE CYCLES

Citation: Moreira C, Froufe E, Vaz-Pires P, Triay-Portella R, Castro JP and Correia AT (2019). Unravelling the population structure of Trachurus picturatus across the NE Atlantic using otolith fingerprinting analyses. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.07.00087

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Received: 28 May 2019; Published Online: 14 Aug 2019.

* Correspondence:
Miss. Cláudia Moreira, Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research, Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto, Matosinhos, Porto, 4450-208, Portugal, claudyamoreira@gmail.com
Prof. Alberto T Correia, Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research, Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto, Matosinhos, Porto, 4450-208, Portugal, atcorreia.ciimar@gmail.com