Growth Characteristics and Reproduction of Comber, <I>Serranus Cabrilla</I> (Actinopterygii, Perciformes, Serranidae), in the Aegean Sea

Age, growth and mortality of the comber Serranus cabrilla (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Eastern Atlantic

“…No specimens smaller than 12 cm were obtained, probably because smaller comber are found in shallow inshore habitats where trawling does not take place and due to gear selectivity causing lower catchability for small individuals. The largest specimen was 26.5 cm in TL, which is slightly larger than the one described for the Mediterranean Sea (22 cm fork length, Torcu-Koc et al 2004;Ilhan et al 2010) but smaller than that reported for the Eastern Atlantic in the 1980s and 1990s: 30 cm TL, southern Portuguese coast (Gonçalves et al 1997) and 36 cm TL, Cape Verde Islands (Magnusson & Magnusson 1987). Regarding the weight-length relationship, an isometric growth similar to what was reported from the Aegean Sea (Ilhan et al 2010) was found, in contrast to a tendency for negative allometric growth, more common in previous studies both in the Mediterranean (Politou & Papaconstantinou 1995;Torcu-Koc et al 2004) and the Atlantic (Magnusson & Magnusson 1987;Gonçalves et al 1997).…”

“…It is a simultaneous hermaphroditic species that inhabits both sandy and rocky bottoms as well as Posidonia beds at depths up to 500 m (Tortonese 1986). Despite this wide distribution, the available biological information is restricted to the Eastern Mediterranean and Canary Islands, focusing on feeding habits (Tuset et al 1996;Türker-Cakir & Torcu-Koc 2002), growth (Tserpes & Tsimenides 2001;Torcu-Koc et al 2004;Ilhan et al 2010), reproduction (García-Diaz et al 1997) and otolith morphology (Tuset et al 2003). Regarding the fishery, the species is moderately commercially exploited in the Eastern Mediterranean (Ilhan et al 2010), being mainly caught as a bycatch species in trawls and trammel nets.…”

“…Despite this wide distribution, the available biological information is restricted to the Eastern Mediterranean and Canary Islands, focusing on feeding habits (Tuset et al 1996;Türker-Cakir & Torcu-Koc 2002), growth (Tserpes & Tsimenides 2001;Torcu-Koc et al 2004;Ilhan et al 2010), reproduction (García-Diaz et al 1997) and otolith morphology (Tuset et al 2003). Regarding the fishery, the species is moderately commercially exploited in the Eastern Mediterranean (Ilhan et al 2010), being mainly caught as a bycatch species in trawls and trammel nets. In the Atlantic, no information on the exploitation pattern exists and on the Portuguese coast the species is an important bycatch in the trawl fishery, being discarded at sea or grouped in the 'diverse' category at Portuguese auctions (Sequeira et al 2015).…”

“…Among the several studies focusing on species ageing (Bouain 1983;Tserpes & Tsimenides 2001;Torcu-Koc et al 2004;Ilhan et al 2010), most use whole otoliths, but no methodologies were ever applied to ensure accuracy and precision. The periodicity of annuli formation using marginal increment analysis (MIR) was only applied by Tserpes & Tsimenides (2001).…”

Biology and population dynamics of by-catch fish species of the bottom trawl fishery in the western Mediterranean

“…Despite their importance in demersal communities and fisheries in the Mediterranean, these species have received relatively limited attention, with the information remaining fragmented in most cases, while very few studies cover the main traits of the life history of these species (C. cuculus: Colloca et al, 2003;S. cabrilla: Torku-Koc et al, 2004;İlhan et al, 2010).…”