Otolith chemoscape analysis in whiting links fishing grounds to nursery areas.

ABSTRACT: Understanding life stage connectivity is essential to define appropriate spatial scales for fisheries management and develop effective strategies to reduce undersized bycatch. Despite many studies of population structure and connectivity in marine fish, most management units do not reflect biological populations and protection is rarely given to juvenile sources of the fished stock. Direct, quantitative estimates that link specific fishing grounds to the nursery areas, which produced the caught fish are essential to meet these objectives. Here we develop a continuous-surface otolith microchemistry approach to geolocate whiting (Merlangius merlangus) and infer life stage connectivity across the west coast of the UK. We show substantial connectivity across existing stock boundaries and ident

SUBMITTER: Burns NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7677557 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature