Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:36:11.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Maturity index validation in the white-spotted skate Bathyraja albomaculata, from the Falkland Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2010

A.C. Henderson*
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Science & Fisheries, Sultan Qaboos University, PO Box 34, Al-Khod 123, Sultanate of Oman
A.I. Arkhipkin
Affiliation:
Falkland Islands Government Fisheries Department, PO Box 598, Stanley, Falkland Islands
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: A.C. Henderson, Department of Marine Science & Fisheries, Sultan Qaboos University, PO Box 34, Al-Khod 123, Sultanate of Oman email: aaronh@squ.edu.om

Abstract

The reproductive systems of 39 male and 54 female Bathyraja albomaculata were assessed microscopically and compared with macroscopic maturity index values assigned by scientific observers. Inconsistencies were limited to ‘developing’ maturity stages in both sexes, but such discrepancies were attributed to different factors depending on sex. Furthermore, while spermatozoa were observed in the oviducal gland of females, they do not appear to accommodate long-term sperm storage in this species.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

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

Agnew, D.J., Nolan, C.P. and Pompert, J. (1999) Management of the Falkland Islands skate and ray fishery. In Shotton, R. (ed.) Case studies of the management of elasmobranch fisheries. Rome: FAO, pp. 268284.Google Scholar
Bobko, S.J. and Berkeley, S.A. (2004) Maturity, ovarian cycle, fecundity, and age-specific parturition of black rockfish (Sebastes melanops). Fishery Bulletin 102, 418429.Google Scholar
Bromley, P.J. (2000) Growth, sexual maturation and spawning in central North Sea plaice (Pleuronectes platessa L.), and the generation of maturity ogives from commercial catch data. Journal of Sea Research 44, 2743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cailliet, G.M., Love, M.S. and Ebeling, A.W. (1986) Fishes: a field and laboratory manual on their structure, identification, and natural history. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Coelho, R. and Erzini, K. (2007) Population parameters of the smooth lantern shark, Etmopterus pusillus, in southern Portugal (NE Atlantic). Fisheries Research 86, 4257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, D. (1998) Estimates of length and age at maturity of four Irish ray species. Moderatorship thesis. Trinity College, Dublin.Google Scholar
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, 7277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillanders, B.M., Ferrell, D.J. and Andrew, N.L. (1999) Size at maturity and seasonal changes in gonad activity of yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi; Carangidae) in New South Wales, Australia. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 33, 457468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamlett, W.C. (1999) Male reproductive system. In Hamlett, W.C. (ed.) Sharks, skates, and rays: the biology of elasmobranch fishes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 444470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamlett, W.C., Hysell, M., Jezior, M., Rozycki, T., Brunette, N. and Tumilty, K. (1999) Fundamental zonation in elasmobranch oviducal glands. In Seret, B. and Yire, J.-Y. (eds) Proceedings of the 5th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference. Noumea: Société Française d'Ichthyologie, pp. 271280.Google Scholar
Hamlett, W.C., Fishelson, L., Baranes, A., Hysell, C.K. and Sever, D.M. (2002) Ultrastructural analysis of sperm storage and morphology of the oviducal gland in the Oman shark, Iago omanensis (Triakidae). Marine and Freshwater Research 53, 601613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamlett, W.C., Knight, D.P., Pereira, F.T.V., Steele, J. and Sever, D.M. (2005) Oviducal glands in chondrichthyans. In Hamlett, W.C. (ed.) Reproductive biology and phylogeny of chondrychthyes: sharks, batoids and chimaeras. New Hampshire: Science Publishers, Inc, pp. 301335.Google Scholar
Hannah, R.W., Parker, S.J. and Fruh, E.L. (2002) Length and age at maturity of female petrale sole (Eopsetta jordani) determined from samples collected prior to spawning aggregation. Fishery Bulletin 100, 711719.Google Scholar
Henderson, A.C., McIlwain, J.L., Al-Oufi, H.S. and Ambu-Ali, A.A. (2006) Reproductive biology of the milk shark Rhizoprionodon acutus and the bigeye houndshark Iago omanensis in the coastal waters of Oman. Journal of Fish Biology 68, 16621678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, M. (1995) Fisheries biology, assessment and management. Oxford: Fishing News Books.Google Scholar
Kyne, P.M. and Bennett, M.B. (2002) Reproductive biology of the eastern shovelnose ray, Aptychotrema rostrata (Shaw & Nodder, 1794), from Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 53, 583589.Google Scholar
Metten, H. (1939) Studies in the reproduction of the dogfish. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London 230, 217238.Google Scholar
Morato, T., Afonso, P., Santos, R.S., Krug, H.M. and Nash, R.D.M. (2003) The reproduction, age and growth of the spotted rockling. Journal of Fish Biology 62, 14501455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratt, H.L. (1993) The storage of spermatozoa in the oviducal glands of western North Atlantic sharks. Environmental Biology of Fishes 38, 139149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stehmann, M.F.W. (2002) Proposal of a maturity stages scale for oviparous and viviparous cartilaginous fishes (Pisces, Chondrichthyes). Archive of Fishery and Marine Research 50, 2348.Google Scholar
Walmsley-Hart, S.A., Sauer, W.H.H. and Buxton, C.D. (1999) The biology of the skates Raja wallacei and R. pullopunctata (Batoidea: Rajidae) on the Agulhas Bank, South Africa. South African Journal of Marine Science 21, 165179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar