Multiple‐brooding rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) can utilize stored sperm from individual sires to fertilize consecutive broods

Abstract

Viviparous rockfishes (Sebastes spp., family Scorpaenidae) mate and store sperm in the ovaries for several months prior to fertilization, as oocytes develop for the parturition season. Although multiple paternity has been documented in single‐brooding rockfishes, paternity in consecutive broods of multiple‐brooding species has not been studied. Analyses of multilocus microsatellite genotypes in both residual larvae left in the ovary from a previous parturition and upcoming fertilized broods in the same ovary demonstrated evidence of the same sires in consecutive broods in chilipepper (Sebastes goodei) and speckled (Sebastes ovalis) rockfishes. One S. goodei mother showed evidence of multiple paternity from the same two sires in both consecutive broods. The ability to retain sperm, even after a parturition event, for use in subsequent broods, confers an advantage to ensure fertilization and allows for extension of the parturition season. This life‐history strategy provides a bet‐hedging advantage in the California Current system, an environmentally dynamic ecosystem where larval survivorship and subsequent recruitment to adult populations can vary temporally by orders of magnitude.