Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures
Length Structure of Deep-Pelagic Fishes Sheds New Light to their Life Histories
Event Name/Location
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Conference Meeting 2008
Presentation Date
2008
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Description
Here we use a new technique to study life history variation in deep-pelagic fishes from a mid-ocean ridge system. Shape of length distribution in a population is to a significant extent determined by the degree to which an average individual approaches its asymptotic maximum size. Analysing the material from the pelagic trawl hauls taken during the 2004 Mar-Eco expedition along the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, we show that length distributions in many deep-pelagic fish species are characterised by negative skew (the left tail of the distribution is longer). In other words, a large proportion of individuals had a size close to species-specific maximum size. Provided that our sampling can be considered representative, this finding suggests that deep-pelagic fishes have a low mortality rate relative to the rate at which they grow towards their asymptotic size.
NSUWorks Citation
Heino, M.; Boukal, David S.; Falkenhaug, Tone; Piatkowski, Uwe; Porteiro, F. M.; and Sutton, Tracey, "Length Structure of Deep-Pelagic Fishes Sheds New Light to their Life Histories" (2008). Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures. 394.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facpresentations/394
COinS
Comments
C:14: 1-6