Population Trends and Status of Two Exploited Northwest Atlantic Grenadiers, Coryphaenoides rupestris

dier Macrourus berglax are well known slope species in the North Atlantic. Dramatic population declines in both species in Canadian waters of the Northwest Atlantic raised the question: was the decline a result of environmental changes or exploi-tation? Min–max autocorrelation factor analysis and dy...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Macrourus Berglax, Jennifer A. Devine
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.568.9327
http://www.bio.uib.no/evofish/papers/Devine_2008_Population_trends.pdf
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Summary:dier Macrourus berglax are well known slope species in the North Atlantic. Dramatic population declines in both species in Canadian waters of the Northwest Atlantic raised the question: was the decline a result of environmental changes or exploi-tation? Min–max autocorrelation factor analysis and dynamic factor analysis, two types of time series analysis, showed that a combination of factors acting on dif-ferent temporal scales explained the trends in both species. Those in Macrourus were best explained by environmental factors operating on long time scales; those in Coryphaenoides were related to exploitation. Our results support the view that an unregulated deep-ocean fishery, as experienced by Coryphaenoides, has serious con-sequences for species that are slow-growing, long-lived and late-maturing.