Exploitation drives an ontogenetic-like deepening in marine fish.

ABSTRACT: Virtually all studies reporting deepening with increasing size or age by fishes involve commercially harvested species. Studies of North Sea plaice in the early 1900s first documented this phenomenon (named Heincke's law); it occurred at a time of intensive harvesting and rapid technological changes in fishing methods. The possibility that this deepening might be the result of harvesting has never been evaluated. Instead, age- or size-related deepening have been credited to interactions between density-dependent food resources and density-independent environmental factors. Recently, time-dependent depth variations have been ascribed to ocean warming. We use a model, initialized from observations of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) on the eastern Scotian Shelf, where an age-dependent deep

SUBMITTER: Frank KT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6016777 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature