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• Main Authors: Vertebral Numberd P. Swain, K. T. Frank, G. Maillet
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cabot; Gadus morhua; Newfoundland; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.495.826; http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/58/1/253.full.pdf

Cod (Gadus morhua) from several populations overwinter in the Cabot Strait area at the entrance to the Gulf of St Lawrence. We examined the utility of vertebral number for estimating the stock composition of cod aggregations in this overwintering area. Stock-specific mean vertebral numbers were estimated using samples obtained in the 1994–1997 spring (spawning) and summer (feeding) seasons when the populations were geographically separated. Mean vertebral number was significantly lower in the southern Gulf population than in each other population (northern Gulf, southern Newfoundland, Sydney Bight, eastern Scotian Shelf), but did not differ significantly among the other populations. Stock-specific vertebral counts were stable over the study period and, for three of the five stocks (including the large migratory Gulf of St Lawrence stocks), over several year classes. Stock composition of the overwintering aggregations was estimated using samples obtained from synoptic bottom-trawl surveys of the Cabot Strait area in January of 1996 and 1997. In both years, mean vertebral number was significantly lower along the south flank of the Laurentian Channel in NAFO (Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization) Divisions 4T and 4Vn