EAP - Estonian Journal of Ecology Publications

Estonian Journal of Ecology

2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 Vol. 59, Issue 4 Vol. 59, Issue 3 Vol. 59, Issue 2 Vol. 59, Issue 1 2009 2008

Open Access Journal

Comparative study of three alternative methods of aging Baltic flounder (Platichthys flesus); pp. 136–146

PDF | doi: 10.3176/eco.2010.2.04

Authors

Tenno Drevs, Tiit Raid

Abstract

Age reading is a major source of uncertainty in the assessments of fish stocks. The paper presents preliminary results of alternative approaches to estimating the age (year-class) structure of Baltic flounder, Platichthys flesus. The size structure of catches and the weight distribution of otoliths were analysed using Bhattacharya’s method to distinguish between different cohorts (year classes). The traditional counting of annual growth zones on otoliths yielded the greatest number of age groups (12). Age determination by Bhattacharya’s analysis of otolith weight frequencies enabled to distinguish between 7 cohorts. Bhattacharya’s analysis of length frequencies of the same material allowed distinguishing 5 or 6 different groups. Theoretical weight distributions of otoliths, calculated by Bhattacharya’s method for age groups 1 and 6, were not significantly different from the corresponding distributions of weights of otoliths obtained by the method of counting annual rings. The importance of random selection of individuals for the determination of the age structure of catch by annual rings of otoliths is emphasized.

References

Campbell, R. C. 1989. Statistics for Biologists. 3rd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Cardinale, M. & Arrhenius, F. 2004. Using otolith weight to estimate the age of haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus): a tree model application. J. Appl. Ichthyol., 20, 470–475.
doi:10.1111/j.1439-0426.2004.00576.x

Cardinale, M., Arrhenius, F. & Johnsson, B. 2000. Potential use of otolith weight for the determination of age-structure of Baltic cod (Gadus morhua) and plaice (Pleuronectes platessa). Fish. Res., 45(3), 239–252.
doi:10.1016/S0165-7836(99)00122-8

Drevs, T. 2007. Catch per unit of effort and growth of flounder (Platichthys flesus): impact of temperature. ICES CM 2007/B 23.

Grauman, G. B. 1981. Spatial distribution of flounder eggs and larvae in the Baltic Sea. In Fisheries Research (BaltNIIRKH) (Kairov, E. A., Leonova, A. P., Lishev, M. N., Malikova, M. L., Polyakov, M. P., Rimsh, E. Ya. & Smirnova, S. V., eds), Vol. 16, pp. 28–38. Riga, Avots (in Russian).

Hasselblad, V. 1966. Estimation of parameters for a mixture of normal distributions. Technometrics, 8(3), 431–444.
doi:10.2307/1266689

ICES. 2007. Manual for the Baltic International Trawl Surveys. Rostock, Germany.

ICES. 2008. Report of the Workshop on Age Reading of Flounder (WKARFLO). Rostock, Germany. 2nd C.M. 2008/ACOM, 38.

ICES. 2009a. Report of the Baltic Fisheries Assessment Working Group. ICES CM 2009.

ICES. 2009b. Report of the Planning Group on Commercial Catches, Discards and Biological Sampling (PGCCDBS). ICES CM 2009/ACOM, 39.

Kazanova, I. I. 1954. Instruction for distinguishing of the roe and larvae of the fish in the Baltic Sea and its bays. In Biology and Exploitation of Main Commercial Fishes of the Baltic Sea (Dmitrev, N. A., ed.), pp. 261–263. VNIRO, Moskva (in Russian).

Lassen, H. & Medley, P. 2001. Virtual Population Analysis. A Practical Manual for Stock Assessment. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. FAO, Rome.

Ojaveer, E. & Drevs, T. 2003. Flounder, Platichthys flesus trachurus (Duncker). In Fishes of Estonia (Ojaveer, E., Pihu, E. & Saat, T., eds), pp. 362–370. Estonian Academy Publishers, Tallinn.

Pawson, M. G. 1990. Using otolith weight to age fish. J. Fish Biol., 36, 521–531.
doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.1990.tb03554.x

Pilling, G. M., Grandcourt, E. M. & Kirkwood, G. P. 2003. The utility of otolith weight as a predictor of age in the emperor Lethrinus mahsena and other tropical fish species. Fish. Res., 60(2–3), 493–506.
doi:10.1016/S0165-7836(02)00087-5

Pino, C. A., Cubillos, L. A., Araya, M. & Sepulveda, A. 2004. Otolith weight as an estimator of age in the Patagonian grenadier, Macruronus magellanicus, in central-south Chile. Fish. Res., 66(2–3), 145–156.
doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2003.07.003

Plokhinskij, N. 1961. Biometrics. Izd. Sibirsk. Otd. AN SSSR, Novosibirsk (in Russian).

Sparre, P. & Venema, S. C. 1992. Introduction to Tropical Fish Stock Assessment. Part I. Manual. FAO, Rome.

Urbah, V. 1963. Statistics for Biologists and Physicians. Izd. AN SSSR, Moskva (in Russian).

Vitins, M. J. 1989. A method and results of young flounder (Platichthys flesus) and turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) surveys in the eastern Baltic, 1986 and 1987. Fisch. Forsch., 27(2), 59–61.

Back to Issue

→ Back issues