Reproductive biology of Trachurus mediterraneus (Carangidae): a detailed study for the Marmara–Black Sea stock

Abstract

The reproductive biology of Mediterranean horse mackerel Trachurus mediterraneus was investigated in the Sea of Marmara over a one-year period. Duration and timing of the spawning season, gonad histology, oocyte development and size at sexual maturity were determined. The presence of all stages of oocytes without any distinct size hiatus indicated that oocyte development of Mediterranean horse mackerel is asynchronous with indeterminate fecundity. Spawning starts in May, peaks in July–August and ends in September. Sizes at 50% maturity were found to be 12.2 and 12.5 cm (total length) for females and males, respectively. Mean batch fecundity was calculated as 10136 ± 703 eggs. Our results on the size at sexual maturity and batch fecundity for the Sea of Marmara differed significantly from published results from the Mediterranean Sea. We ascribe these differences to different stock structures in these seas. Our results form the basis for future reproductive biology studies on the under-studied Marmara–Black Sea stock.

Hook selectivity and catch efficiency in two sport fishing sectors in the Strait of Istanbul, Turkey: Classic handline fishing and Light Rock Fishing (LRF)

“…The length at first maturity of the horse mackerel was found to be at 20 cm in Greek waters (Stergiou et al, 1997), 11.5 cm in the Black Sea (Genç et al, 1999) and 13 cm in the Sea of Marmara (Demirel & Yüksek, 2013. The minimum legal landing size for the horse mackerel is 13 cm for the Turkish seas (Anonymous, 2016).…”

Reproduction of Carangoides vinctus (Perciformes: Carangidae) in the Mexican Central Pacific

“…vinctus presenta un ovario donde los ovocitos se desarrollan en forma asincrónica (sensu Yamamoto & Yamasaki, 1961), ya que en los ovarios con capacidad reproductiva presentan una amplia gama de crecimiento de los ovocitos (Brown-Peterson et al, 2011;Lowerre-Barbieri et al, 2011), donde se identificaron hasta seis fases de ovocitos. Este mismo tipo de desarrollo también se encontró en otro carángido, Trachurus mediterraneus (Demirel & Yüksek, 2013). En contraste, para Seriola dumerilii que pertenece a la misma familia, los autores mencionan que la especie presentó ovocitos con desarrollo sincrónico por grupo, al observar más de un grupo de ovocitos (Marino et al, 1995).…”

“…Entre las especies de carángidos cuyas características reproductivas han sido investigadas, al menos parcialmente, están Seriola dumerili (Marino et al, 1995), Trachurus mediterraneus (Viette et al, 1997;Demirel & Yüksek, 2013), T. ovatus (Assem et al, 2005), Caranx crysos (Sley et al, 2012) para el Mar Mediterráneo; Pseudocaranx dentex (Guirao et al, 2005;Afonso et al, 2008) para las islas Canarias e islas Azores; y Decapterus punctatus (McBride et al, 2002) para el golfo de México. En el Océano Índico se ha estudiado Carangoides chrysophrys en el mar Arábico (Al-Rasady et al, 2012) y Scomberoides lysan en Sri Lanka (Thulasitha & Sivashanthini, 2013a, 2013b.…”

Seasonal distribution of Trachurus mediterraneus (Steindachner, 1868) in the Golden Horn Estuary, İstanbul

“…Each captured fish was classified into 1 of 2 life-stage groups by size and maturity class, immature adult (≤12.5 cm) or adult (>12.5 cm), considering the size-at-sexual-maturity (L 50 ) data for the Sea of Marmara (Demirel and Yüksek, 2013a). Length-weight relationships (LWRs) were estimated by regression analyses.…”