Evidence of stock connectivity, hybridization and misidentification in white anglerfish support the need of a genetics-informed fisheries management framework

Abstract

Genetics analyses can reveal mismatches between biological and management units and thus prevent derived ineffective management actions that could lead to serious consequences for fisheries management. Additionally, genetics could reveal other relevant but hidden information such as species misidentification or hybridization. Here, we have assessed the power of genetics to better understand the population connectivity of white angelfish (Lophius piscatorius) and its interaction with its sister species, the black anglerfish (L. budegassa). Our analyses, based on thousands of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms, show three thus far unknown findings that are crucial for white anglerfish management. We found i) that white anglerfish is composed by a single panmictic population throughout the Northeast Atlantic, challenging the three-stock based management, ii) that a fraction of specimens classified as white anglerfish using morphological characteristics are genetically identified as black anglerfish (L. budegassa) and iii) that the two Lophius species naturally hybridize leading to a population of hybrids of up to 20% in certain areas. Our results set the basics for a genetics-informed white anglerfish assessment framework that accounts for stock connectivity, revises and establishes new diagnostic characters for Lophius species identification and evaluates the effect of hybrids in the current and future assessments of the white anglerfish.