When is year-class strength determined in western Baltic herring?

Abstract

Oeberst, R., Klenz, B., Gröhsler, T., Dickey-Collas, M., Nash, R. D. M., and Zimmermann, C. 2009. When is year-class strength determined in western Baltic herring? – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 1667–1672. Weekly surveys of larvae in the Strelasund and the Greifswalder Bodden were used to investigate when year-class strength is determined in western Baltic spring-spawning (WBSS) herring. An abundance metric of larvae reaching a length of 20 mm over the entire spawning season was constructed by accounting for increases in daily growth resulting from seasonal increases in temperature (5–20°C). The index was significantly correlated with the acoustic estimates of age-1 herring in the western Baltic Sea (r = 0.88) and with the estimates of year-class strength obtained from stock assessment (r = 0.65). Previous studies of herring elsewhere have reported that year-class strength is determined during the late larval stage, but we show that year-class strength can already be fixed at a larval length of only 20 mm. Although the index obtained may be used in stock assessment and predictions, the intriguing question remains, namely how can the signal of larval productivity from one single spawning component of WBSS herring reflect the year-class dynamics of the entire stock?

Variability in transport of fish eggs and larvae. II. Effects of hydrodynamics on the transport of Downs herring larvae

“…Thus an investigation of the interannual variability in transport should not only look at delivery of herring but also the period during which recruitment strength is determined (i.e. the first few months, see Oeberst et al 2009). …”

Abundance and distribution of larval herring, Clupea harengus (Actinopterygii: Clupeiformes: Clupeidae) in the Pomeranian Bay, Baltic Sea as an indicator of spawning sites

“…Recruitment success, including that of Baltic herring (Oeberst et al 2009a, Ojaveer et al 2011, depends on the number of larvae produced in a given reproductive season that survive to older ages (Houde 2008, Shepherd and Cushing 1980, Heath 1992, Nash et al 2009). Therefore, three factors are crucial for obtaining good year-classes: the availability of suitable spawning grounds, the occurrence of conditions permitting the spawning of adults, and appropriate conditions supporting the survival of eggs, hatching success, and growth and survival of larvae.…”

“…Unfortunately, no other data for the Pomeranian Bay are available for comparison. Considerably more information is available from the German side of the border, regarding larval and juvenile herring distribution in the nearby Greifswalder Bodden and adjacent waters, including both historic (Thieme and Biester 1981, Brielmann and Biester 1981, Brielmann 1989, Biester 1989) and more recent data (Oeberst et al 2009a, 2009b, von Dorrien et al 2013, Polte et al 2014.…”

A Review on Herring, <I>Clupea Harengus</I> (Actinopterygii: Clupeiformes: Clupeidae) Recruitment and Early Life Stage Ecology in the Western Baltic Sea

“…In 1977, Biester et al (1978) started investigating herring larvae during the spawning season in the GWB area on a sampling grid including 20 stations. This biological time series is continued to the present by the Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries in the Rügen Herring Larvae Survey (RHLS) (Oeberst et al 2009b). Additionally, during 1984-1987 The first part of the review presents published knowledge about the western Baltic autumn spawning herring.…”