Maturation in the Barents Sea capelin – Contrasting length- and gonad-based metrics

It is assumed that maturation in the Barents Sea capelin is length-dependent, and that fish of at least 14 cm will potentially spawn. Current assessment and management models for the stock are based on this assumption of constant maturity at length (MaL). Using data from scientific surveys, this pap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fisheries Research
Main Authors: Jourdain, Natoya, Fuglebakk, Edvin, Subbey, Samuel
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021
Subjects:
Barents Sea
capelin
gonad
length
maturation
uncertainty
VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Marinbiologi: 497
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2761049
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2021.105880
Description
Summary:It is assumed that maturation in the Barents Sea capelin is length-dependent, and that fish of at least 14 cm will potentially spawn. Current assessment and management models for the stock are based on this assumption of constant maturity at length (MaL). Using data from scientific surveys, this paper examines the validity of the constant MaL assumption, and contrasts it with maturation based on examination of fish gonads. Our analyses, based on time series of 16 years, show that MaL-based estimates of the proportion of maturing stock usually exceed gonad-based estimates. The difference varies consistently with time, and stock-size. We discuss the consequence of our results in the context of uncertainty associated with the current harvest rule. publishedVersion

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