So Close Yet So Far: Age and Growth of Blue Antimora Antimora rostrata (Moridae, Gadiformes, Teleostei) off New Zealand and Macquarie Island (Southwestern Pacific Ocean)

Abstract

Age and growth of blue antimora Antimora rostrata were examined in the waters off New Zealand and Macquarie Island (southwestern Pacific). Samples off Macquarie Island were collected from bycatch in the Patagonian toothfish longline fishery. Individuals between 20 and 44 years in age measured between 37.6–71.1 cm in total length. Bottom trawl catches from New Zealand waters consisted of smaller and younger fish (11 to 38 years), measuring 22.5–52.5 cm long. The age classes with the greatest numbers in the former area were represented by fish aged 33–34 years (25.7%). In the latter area, the most numerous age classes were 21–23 years (12.1%), 28–29 years (17.6%), and 32 years (6.6%). The blue antimora from off the Macquarie Island show similar growth rates to those of individual fish from the Ross, Lazarev and Weddell Seas, waters off the Kerguelen and Crozet Islands, and southeastern Greenland. Individuals from New Zealand waters demonstrate the slowest growth rates compared to other parts of the species’ range but are quite similar to individuals from the Flemish Cap area. Further research to identify the stock structure of this broadly distributed species is warranted to provide context to differences in growth rates observed between populations.

First Data on the Age and Growth of Schmidt’s cod Lepidion schmidti (Moridae) from Waters of the Emperor Seamounts (Northwestern Pacific)

“…Howev among representatives of the Moridae family, long-lived species are known, such as A timora spp. and common mora Mora moro [22,29,32,50]. The comparison of AIC values indicates that both VBGE and the linear functi provide the best fit for describing fish growth in the sample, although VBGE values a slightly higher (Table 1).…”

“…However, among representatives of the Moridae family, long-lived species are known, such as Antimora spp. and common mora Mora moro [22,29,32,50].…”

“…The fishing was done using Mustad (Gjøvik, Lepidion schmidti has been poorly studied, and there are currently no publications documenting age and growth of this species. Although there are over 100 species in this family, data on age and growth have only been published for a few, including the common mora Mora moro [22,23], longfin codling Laemonema longipes [24], red cod Pseudophycis bacchus [25][26][27], blue antimora Antimora rostrata [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], and Pacific flatnose A. microlepis [36][37][38]. Among the nine valid species in the genus Lepidion, information on growth and age is available for the North Atlantic codling L. eques only [33].…”

“…This method has been successfully used to determine the age of other members of the Moridae family, such as Antimora spp. [30][31][32]34,35,37,38,42]. The otoliths were sectioned to the center, then heated in the flame of an alcohol burner, and polished on abrasive disks with aluminum-oxide or silicon-carbide coating with a grain size of 0.1-0.9 µm (Buehler, Lake Bluff, IL, USA).…”

“Firefly” of the Submarine Mountains: New Data on Physiculus cynodon (Moridae, Teleostei) from Emperor Seamounts and Northwestern Hawaiian Ridge

“…A widely employed method for estimating the age of fish using otoliths, which has demonstrated success in demersal (including deep-water) species inhabiting the waters along the west coast of the USA and Canada [40], is the "break and burn" technique. This method has also proven effective in studying the age of some morid species [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49].…”