Life history of the red-banded seabream Pagrus auriga (Sparidae) from the coasts of the Canarian archipelago

Abstract

Red-banded seabream Pagrus auriga (N ¼ 615) were caught off the Canary Islands from January 2003 to December 2004. Total length ranged from 120 to 780 mm. The species was characterized by protogynous hermaphroditism. The male : female ratio was in favour of females (1 : 8.2). The reproductive season extended from September to February, with a peak in spawning activity in October-November. Fifty percentage maturity was reached at 387 mm total length by females and 533 mm by males. The length-weight relationship for all individuals was described by the parameters: a ¼ 0.0086 and b ¼ 3.014, when length is given in mm and weight in grams. Otolith age readings indicated that the population consists of 19 age groups, including a very high proportion of individuals between 0 and 7 years old. Growth analysis reveals that the species is slow-growing and relatively long lived (18 years). The von Bertalanffy growth parameters for the entire population were: L ¥ ¼ 803 mm, k ¼ 0.081 year )1 and t 0 ¼ )2.17 year. Growth differed between males and females. The instantaneous rate of natural mortality for all fish was: M ¼ 0.164 year )1 .

Short-term hooking mortality of three marine fish species (Sparidae) caught by recreational angling in the south Portugal

“…Previous studies found that fish hooked in deeper waters presented more severe signs of barotrauma and, consequently, had higher mortality rates (Götz et al, 2007;Alós, 2008;Sumpton et al, 2010). Therefore, our results should not be applied to boat fishing for example, particularly when a fish is hooked at greater depths (>30 m) (Pajuelo et al, 2006). Another potentially important factor for recreational shore fishing is the height from which the fish are released back to the sea.…”

Growth pattern and age estimation of the coastal sparid fish Pagrus auriga on the Canary Islands shelf

“…Also, in a review of otolith studies including 94 species from 36 families, Beckman and Wilson (1995) found that, for the majority of the low latitude species studied, the period of opaque growth coincided with summer months, and they also concluded that opaque zone deposition is partially related to local increases in temperature, but that the controlling factors are a combination of environmental and endogenous factors. The variable size of the first annulus formed during the first winter following hatching is presumed to be functions of both the protracted redbanded seabream spawning season (Pajuelo et al, 2006) and the rapid growth rate of juvenile. Those individuals that are spawned early in the season will experience proportionally more growth (and presumably more hyaline zone accretion adjacent to the otolith core) than will a late spawned individual; thus, the first annulus will be more distant from the otolith core in the former instance than under the latter circumstance.…”

“…Individual ages were corrected by the birthdate, corresponding to the mid-point of the spawning period (Pajuelo et al, 2006) and taking into account the date of capture. Thus is, 1 December was considered as birthdate.…”

“…Only aspects related to the sexuality, sexual inversion, gonadal structure, maturity and the reproductive season have been studied in the northwest of Africa (Alekseev, 1982(Alekseev, , 1983Pajuelo et al, 2006).…”

The structure of a nearshore fish assemblage at an oceanic island: insight from small scale fisheries through bottom traps at Gran Canary Island (Canary Islands, eastern Atlantic)

“…The structure of the Canarian fishing fleet shows a high social and economic dependency on small-scale fishing (FAO 2011;EU Fisheries in Canary Islands 2013). The assessment and further management of these resources is complicated, because the knowledge of biological parameters is restricted to the main commercial species (González and Lozano 1992;Pajuelo and Lorenzo 1995, 1999García-Díaz et al 1997Méndez-Villamil et al 1997;Pajuelo et al 2006;González et al 2012). Importantly, there are no available historical, temporal, series of catches and fishing effort for all gears and ports (Hernández-García et al 1998), what avoid proper evaluation of fishing trends through decades.…”