Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T07:02:18.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inaccuracies in routinely collected Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) maturity data and correction using a gonadosomatic index model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

Lindsay R. McPherson ,
Konstantinos Ganias  and
C. Tara Marshall
Lindsay R. McPherson*
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ
Konstantinos Ganias
Affiliation:
School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124 Thessaloniki, Greece
C. Tara Marshall
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: L.R. McPherson, University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Macroscopic maturity staging data are widely used to distinguish between reproductive and non-reproductive individuals. The implicit assumption is that these data are accurate. The accuracy of macroscopic maturity staging of North Sea herring (Clupea harengus) has not been checked since the macroscopic scale was produced in 1961. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of macroscopic maturity staging of female North Sea herring by comparison to histological staging and the gonadosomatic index (GSI). Ovary samples were collected during the North Sea Herring Acoustic Survey in 2006 on-board FRV ‘Scotia’ (Scotland) and in 2007 on-board FRV ‘Scotia’ and RV ‘Johan Hjort’ (Norway). Commercial samples were also collected by Marine Scotland, Aberdeen in both years. The maturity staging error was relatively low in 2006 (21% error) but was much higher on-board FRV ‘Scotia’ (57%) and RV ‘Johan Hjort’ (47%) in 2007. There was estimated to be a 27% under-estimation of the spawning stock biomass (SSB) in 2007 due to the differences in the proportion mature but no change in SSB estimates in 2006. GSI cut-off scores, estimated by means of multinomial regression models were successfully able to separate immature females from both mature-active and recovering females; however, there was some overlap between the mature-active and recovering individuals. We conclude that an effective and low-cost means of reducing error in herring maturity studies is the combined use of a four-point macroscopic maturity scale with routinely collected GSI data, the latter acting to validate and fine tune macroscopic staging.

Keywords

Atlantic herringGSImaturity scaleoperator errorfisheries management
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 91 , Issue 7 , November 2011 , pp. 1477 - 1487
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bowers, A.B. and Holliday, F.G.T. (1961) Histological changes in the gonad associated with the reproductive cycle of the herring (Clupea harengus L.). Marine Research Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland 5, 1–16.Google Scholar
Bromley, P.J. (2003) Progress towards a common gonad grading key for estimating the maturity of North Sea plaice. Report of the Working Group on Modern Approaches to Assess Maturity and Fecundity of Warm- and Cold-water Fish and Squids, Fisken Hav., No. 12-2003, pp 19–24, 140 pp.Google Scholar
Carrassón, M. and Bau, M. (2003) Reproduction and gonad histology of Aidablennius sphinx (Pisces: Blenniidae) of the Catalan Sea (north-western Mediterranean). Scientia Marina 67, 461–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claereboudt, M.R., Mcllwain, J.L., Al-Oufi, H.S. and Ambu-Ali, A.A. (2005) Patterns of reproduction and spawning of the kingfish (Scomberomorus commerson, Lacépède) in the coastal waters of the Sultanate of Oman. Fisheries Research 73, 273–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. (1960) A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement 20, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVlamming, V., Grossman, G. and Chapman, F. (1982) On the use of the gonadosomatic index. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 73, 31–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, D.L., Hightower, J.E. and Grossman, G.D. (1985) The relative gonadal index: an alternative index for quantification of reproductive condition. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 81, 117–120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gerritsen, H.D. and McGrath, D. (2006) Variability in the assignment of maturity stages of plaice (Pleuronectes platessa L.) and whiting (Merlangius merlangus L.) using macroscopic maturity criteria. Fisheries Research 77, 72–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, J.R. and Macewicz, B.J. (2003) Improving the accuracy and precision of reproductive information used in fisheries. Report of the Working Group on Modern Approaches to Assess Maturity and Fecundity of Warm- and Cold-water Fish and Squids, Fisken Hav., No. 12-2003 57–68, 140 pp.Google Scholar
ICES (2008) Report of the planning group on herring surveys. ICES C.M. 2008/LRC: 01, 256 pp.Google Scholar
Kennedy, J., Skjæraasen, J.E., Nash, R.D.M., Thorsen, A., Slotte, A., Hansen, T. and Kjesbu, O.S. (2010) Do capital breeders like Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) exhibit sensitive periods of nutritional control on ovary development and fecundity regulation? Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 67, 16–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klibansky, N. and Juanes, F. (2007) Species-specific effects of four preservative treatments on oocytes and ovarian material of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) and American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides). Fishery Bulletin 105, 538–547.Google Scholar
Koya, Y., Soyano, K., Yamamoto, K., Obana, H. and Matsubara, T. (2003) Oocyte development and serum profiles of vitellogenin and steroid hormone levels in captive female Pacific herring Clupea pallasii during their first maturational cycle. Fishery Science 63, 137–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Mesa, M., Caputo, V., Rampa, R. and Vacchi, M. (2003) Macroscopic and histological analyses of gonads during the spawning season of Chionodraco hamatus (Pisces, Channichthyidae) off Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea, Southern Ocean. Polar Biology 26, 621–628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landry, J. and McQuinn, I.H. (1988) Guide to microscopic and macroscopic identification of the sexual maturity stages of the Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus harengus L.). Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, No. 1655, 71 pp.Google Scholar
Lea, E. (1910) Contributions to the methodics in herring-investigations. Publications de Circonstance 53, 7–33.Google Scholar
McQuinn, I.H. (1989) Identification of spring- and autumn-spawning herring (Clupea harengus harengus) using maturity stages assigned from gonadosomatic index model. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 46, 969–980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potoschi, A., Renones, O. and Cannizzaro, L. (1999) Sexual development, maturity and reproduction of dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) in the western and central Mediterranean. Scientia Marina 63, 367–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R Development Core Team (2009) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Satistical Computing. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL http://www.R-project.org.Google Scholar
Saborido-Rey, F. and Junquera, S. (1998) Histological assessment of variations in sexual maturity of cod (Gadus morhua L.) at the Flemish Cap (north-west Atlantic). ICES Journal of Marine Research 55, 515–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Somarakis, S., Ganias, K., Tserpes, G. and Koutsikopoulos, C. (2004) Ovarian allometry and the use of the gonadosomatic index: a case study in the Mediterranean sardine, Sardina pilchardus. Marine Biology 146, 181–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomkiewicz, J., Tybjerg, L. and Jespersen, Å. (2003) Micro- and macroscopic characteristics to stage gonadal maturation of female Baltic cod. Journal of Fish Biology 62, 253–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, C.R. and Sumpter, J.P. (1996) Oocyte growth and development in teleosts. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 6, 287–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vitale, F., Svedäng, H. and Cardinale, M. (2006) Histological analysis invalidates macroscopically determined maturity ogives of the Kattegat cod (Gadus morhua) and suggests new proxies for estimating maturity status of individual fish. ICES Journal of Marine Science 63, 485–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, G. (1990) Methods of assessing ovarian development in fishes: a review. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 41, 199–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, K. (2007) Evaluation of the macroscopic staging method for determining maturity of female walleye pollock Theragra chalcogramma in Shelikof Strait, Alaska. Alaska Fishery Research Bulletin 12, 252–263.Google Scholar