Age, growth, and reproductive season of bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) in the Marmara region, Turkey

Abstract

Ceyhan, T., Akyol, O., Ayaz, A., and Juanes, F. 2007. Age, growth, and reproductive season of bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) in the Marmara region, Turkey. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64: 531–536. Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) are distributed widely along the Turkish coasts, and are regularly captured, especially in the Sea of Marmara during their spawning migration to the Black Sea from the Mediterranean in spring and during their return migration south in early autumn. Age, growth, and reproductive season are reported. The ages of 1114 bluefish were determined from otoliths. The age groups ranged from 0 to III, and mean fork lengths (and weights) were 14.4 ± 0.12 cm (38.2 ± 1.02 g), 19.5 ± 0.06 cm (93.7 ± 0.86 g), 27.5 ± 0.48 cm (238.5 ± 11.3 g), and 33.3 ± 0.50 cm (431.9 ± 17.08 g) for each age group, respectively. The von Bertalanffy growth parameters were L∞ = 51 cm, K = 0.228, and t0 = −1.26 y. The reproductive period, evaluated from gonadosomatic indices, began in early spring and extended until August.

From bonito to anchovy: a reconstruction of Turkey’s marine fisheries catches (1950-2010)

“…Fish markets sampled along the Black Sea coast from 1990-1995 (Zengin et al, 1998) found that one third of the anchovy for sale in the region were below the minimum legal catch size of 9 cm; and in the Black Sea, 90% of bluefish are caught before they have a chance to reproduce. The minimum landing size (MLS) for bluefish was 14 cm (Ceyhan et al, 2007), but this species does not begin to reproduce until it is between 20-25 cm in length. Local fishers were worried about this 'growth overfishing' problem and started a national campaign (with the aid of Greenpeace) to raise public awareness regarding under-sized fish (Ceyhan et al, 2007).…”

“…The minimum landing size (MLS) for bluefish was 14 cm (Ceyhan et al, 2007), but this species does not begin to reproduce until it is between 20-25 cm in length. Local fishers were worried about this 'growth overfishing' problem and started a national campaign (with the aid of Greenpeace) to raise public awareness regarding under-sized fish (Ceyhan et al, 2007). Due to this highly-publicized campaign (which provided rulers to measure fish length), the minimum legal landing size was increased to 20 cm for bluefish, but public pressure is mounting for the minimum legal landing length to be increased further to 25 cm.…”

Paleoclimate Shaped Bluefish Structure in the Northern Hemisphere

“…As a consequence of its broad distribution and the existence of potential oceanographic barriers, the species may be composed of multiple different populations, but there is limited information available (Goodbred and Graves 1996;Turan et al 2006;Pardiñas et al 2010). Bluefish is one of the most important recreational and commercial species along the east coast of the United States (Robillard et al 2008) and is the target species of an important artisanal fishery in all Turkish seas: Marmara, Aegean, and Black (Ceyhan et al 2007). Failure to detect and recognize population units can lead to local overfishing and ultimately to severe declines of fisheries (Hutchings 2000;Knutsen et al 2009); thus, an accurate definition of Bluefish population structure is particularly important and necessary for fisheries management (Utter 1991;Wilson 2003).…”

Monitoring of weekly catch per unit effort (CPUE) and some biological features of bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix Linnaeus, 1766) captured from southern Black Sea coasts of Turkey

“…Most of the studies on bluefish has been carried out in the Marmara Sea and Aegean Sea. Some of them is about age, growth, maturity, fishing gear selectivity of bluefish (Ceyhan and Akyol, 2006;Akyol and Ceyhan, 2007;Ceyhan et al, 2007;Acarlı et al, 2013Acarlı et al, , Öztekin et al, 2018Bal et al, 2018;İlkyaz, 2018). However, there are only few studies on bluefish in the Black Sea.…”