Age and growth of blotched picarel (Spicara maena Linnaeus, 1758) in the Sea of Marmara and Northern Aegean Sea

Abstract

: The aim of this study was determining of some population parameters of Spicara maena in the Sea of Marmara and North Aegean Sea. Samples of S. maena were collected from commercial fishing, gillnet/trammel net and line fishing, between February-October 2013 in the Northern Aegean Sea (Dikili, Altınoluk, Küçükkuyu) and the Sea of Marmara (Karabiga, Bandırma, Tekirdağ). A total of 323 S. maena specimens were analysed. The total length of the specimens ranged from 8.4 to 18.8 cm. The length-weight relationships for the Sea of Marmara and the Northern Aegean Sea were a=0.0030, b=3.53, SEb=0.080 and a=0.0100, b=3.06, SEb=0.120 respectively. The b values showed that the growth of S. maena in the Northern Aegean Sea was isometric while the sample in the Sea of Marmara showed positively allometric growth. Fish aged 1-4 years in the Sea of Marmara and 2-6 years in the North Aegean Sea were present in the samples.Growth in length including both sexes was expressed using the von Bertalanffy equation, L ∞ =17.17 cm, k=0.52 y, t0=-1.04 y -1 in the Sea of Marmara and L ∞ =18.71 cm, k=0.35 y, t0=-1.98 y -1 in the Northern Aegean Sea. The otolith length-total length relationships in the Sea of Marmara and the Northern Aegean Sea were OL=0.301×TL+1.049 and OL=0.249×TL+1.885, respectively.

Molecular characterization and phylogeography of Mediterranean picarels (Spicara flexuosa, S. maena and S. smaris) along the coasts of Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean

“…In several former studies, S. flexuosa was reported to be present in the Turkish coastal waters (Tortonose, 1986;Salekhova, 1979;Fischer et al, 1987;Nelson, 1994;Ragonese et al, 2004;Golani et al, 2006;Turan et al, 2007;Turan, 2011;Bektaş et al, 2018). Interestingly, other studies along the Turkish coast, consider S. flexuosa and S. maena to be conspecific (Karakulak et al, 2006;Soykan et al, 2010;Keskin et al, 2011;Saygılı et al, 2016;Froese and Pauly, 2017). The result of this study indicates that the distinction of the three taxa under Spicara species is possible, as shown in previous studies (Chiba et al, 2009;Imsiridou et al, 2011;Georgiadis et al, 2014;Bektaş et al, 2018).…”

“…Certain species-specific characteristics within the Spicara genus, such as protogynous hermaphroditism (Salekhova, 1979;Karakulak et al, 2006;Saygılı et al, 2016) and secondary sex characteristics (e.g. size, body color and marking) (Pollard and Pichot, 1971;Arculeo et al, 1996), contribute to their confused taxonomy.…”

An Observation About Maximum Size Record of Blotched Picarel (Spicara maena Linnaeus, 1758) from Northern Aegean Coasts of Turkey

“…As to Turkish seas, information on the biology of species come from Saros Bay (Cengiz, 2019), Gallipoli Peninsula (Cengiz et al, 2014), Sea of Marmara and Edremit Bay (Saygılı et al, 2016), Izmir Bay (Soykan et al, 2010) and Babadillimani Bight (Çiçek et al, 2007), as a summary.…”