The Abundance and Distribution of the Early Life Stages of Sardine (Sardina pilchardus) in Central of the Aegean Sea (Sığacık Bay) and their Interactions with Certain Environmental Factors

Estimation of spawning stock biomass and spawning areas of sardine, (Sardina pilchardus) with winter time ichthyoplankton sampling in the Sea of Marmara, Türkiye

“…The depths deeper than 60 meters had relatively lower biomass values and the deepest center channel had not any sardine eggs and larvae. The results show similarities with the findings of Somarakis et al (2006), Zwolinski et al (2006), and Uygun and Hoşsucu (2020). Roy et al (1989) stated that sardine adapted their reproductive strategy to the coastal upwelling ecosystem of the Portuguese West coast to minimize Ekman offshore transport effects.…”

“…Somarakis et al (2006) stated that sardines mostly prefer depths between 40 m and 90 m for spawn, and biomass is concentrated especially in zooplankton-rich areas in open water conditions in the Aegean Sea. Also, Zwolinski et al (2006) determined the dense fish egg biomass around 40-60 meter depths between the Gulf of Cadiz and Algarve, Portugal, and stated the eggs distributed between 25 and 75 meters in the Sığacık Bay (Uygun and Hoşsucu, 2020). In the present study, the stations in which sardine fish egg and larvae biomass was higher (3, 5, 15, 18, and 30) were mostly located between 35 and 53 m depths.…”

“…Also, similar temperature intervals and spawning seasons were stated in the Aegean Sea. Sardine spawning peaked between 13-15°C in İzmir Bay (Hoşsucu, 1992), and 12.5-15.3°C in February in the Sığacık Bay (Uygun and Hoşsucu, 2020). Similar SST ranges were revealed also for the Bay of Biscay as between 12.5 and 15°C according to Sola et al (1990) and 10-16°C according to Arbault and Lacroix (1977).…”

“…Also, relatively higher mean fish egg and larvae biomass values were reported from the Aegean Sea and Mediterranean Sea. The mean fish egg biomass in a unit area was found as 607 eggs/10 m 2 in Edremit Bay (Türker Çakır, 2004;Türker Çakır et al, 2008), as a 49 eggs/10 m 2 in the Sığacık Bay (Uygun and Hoşsucu, 2020), and as 40 eggs/10 m 2 in the Mersin Bay (Ak, 2004). It can be seen that the mean biomass was found lowest in the present study.…”

“…The first maturity length (TL, total length) was found as 12 cm in the Aegean Sea (Cihangir, 1995), 12.5 cm in Spain and 13.5 cm in Adriatic (Beverton, 1963), 13.5 cm in the Gulf of Lion (Campillo, 1992), 15 cm in the Gulf of Biscay (Dorel, 1986), and 16 cm in the Madeira (Silva et al, 2006). Also, spawning season occurred between October and April in Portugal (Figueiredo and Santos, 1989), between October and January in Northwest Africa (Delgado and Fernandez, 1985), between January and September in Southwest England (Wirtz et al, 2008), between December and February in the Sığacık Bay (Uygun and Hoşsucu, 2020), and between October and May in the Çanakkale Strait (Daban, 2013). According to Turkish notification on the regulation of commercial fishing, the minimum landing size of sardine is 11 cm in TL.…”