Principle Investigator:

• Main Authors: David Berlinsky, Associate Professor
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: atlantic cod
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.432.5378; http://www.northeastconsortium.org/pdfs/awards_2005/Berlinsky 05/Berlinsky 05 Final Report.pdf

2 Abstract: In this collaborative research project, we formed a partnership of commercial fisherman and scientists from UNH and NYU to investigate stock definitions for Atlantic cod using DNA markers. Cod in U.S. waters are currently managed as two stocks: 1) a Gulf of Maine stock and 2) a Georges Bank and south stock. This designation is decades old and warrants reevaluation in light of concerns that fisheries management units may not reflect biologically meaningful population units. To address this, we used 10 microsatellite and 6 SNP markers to characterize the population genetic structure of cod in U.S. waters. We found significant differentiation among temporally and spatially divergent populations of cod (global F ST = 0.0044, G ´ ST = 0.0144), primarily stemming from two non-neutral loci, and strong evidence for a population structure that contradicts the current two-stock management model. Our results indicate that cod in U.S. waters are broadly structured into three groups: 1) a northern spring spawning coastal complex in the Gulf of Maine (GOM), 2) a southern complex consisting of winter-spawning inshore GOM, offshore GOM and sites south of Cape Cod, MA, and 3) a