Age and growth of chub mackerel (Scomber colias) in North and Northwest Iberian waters based on direct age estimation and back-calculation in otoliths.
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1
Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO), Spain
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2
Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO), Spain
Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias, Gmelin, 1978) is a middle-sized pelagic fish distributed in warm and temperate waters. Its landings have significantly increased in the most recent years in the Iberian Peninsula, possibly related to the rise in its abundance due to an increase of the water temperature, and resulting a new target species for both Portuguese and Spanish purse seiner fleets. This has increased the EU interest in its biological knowledge in order to launch its stock assessment in the near future. The study of this species is framed within the Spanish National Program of collection, management and use of data in the fisheries sector and support for scientific advice regarding the Common Fisheries Policy.
Based in samples from commercial catches and scientific surveys between 2011 and 2017, this work studies the age and growth of chub mackerel in North and Northwest Iberian waters.
The age of the specimens were estimated by interpreting the annual increments (annuli) of the otoliths based in the age estimation criteria for this species established during the first ICES Workshop on Age Reading of Chub Mackerel otoliths, WKARCM. The consistency of the age estimations was checked by international otolith exchanges among international readers of different institutions.
Age-length keys were here performed by direct age estimation and length-at-age values from two consecutive years were also estimated by backcalculation, providing consistency to the age estimation.
Von Bertalanffy growth parameters, based on direct otolith observation and backcalculation, were estimated and compared with those of previous studies.
In addition, the annual length distributions of the catch showing interannual variability are presented.
Length/weight relationship, and mean length and weight at age were also estimated.
The age and growth results here obtained are now available for the analytical stock assessment.
Keywords:
Age-length key,
Length - weight relationship,
length distribution,
Growth parameters,
Back-calculation
Conference:
XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) , Braga, Portugal, 9 Sep - 12 Sep, 2019.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Fisheries, Aquaculture and Biotechnology
Citation:
Navarro
M,
Landa
J,
Villamor
B,
Hernández
C and
Dominguez
R
(2019). Age and growth of chub mackerel (Scomber colias) in North and Northwest Iberian waters based on direct age estimation and back-calculation in otoliths..
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) .
doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.08.00096
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Received:
13 May 2019;
Published Online:
27 Sep 2019.
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Correspondence:
Mx. Maria Rosario Navarro, Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO), Madrid, Spain, charo.navarro@ieo.es