Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS42 American Fisheries Society/ASLO Joint Session: Scaling Fisheries From Egg to Adult and Back Again (Spatial and Temporal Connections)

Date: Wednesday, February 14, 2001, Time: 12:15:00 PM

Location: Sandia/Santa Ana

Thorrold, S, R, Dept. Biol. Sci., Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA, sthorrol@odu.edu

Latkoczy, C, , LITER, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA, clatkocz@odu.edu

Swart, P, K, RSMAS, University of Miami, Miami, USA, Pswart@rsmas.miami.edu

QUANTIFYING POPULATION STRUCTURE IN A MARINE FISH THROUGH ANALYSES OF OTOLITH GEOCHEMISTRY

Quantifying connectivity among populations of marine fish remains a significant hurdle in fisheries management, the design of marine reserves, and determining essential fish habitat. The presence of sufficient connectivity to warrant treating putative sub-units as a single population has been based on a failure to reject the null hypothesis of panmixia in genetic analyses. We applied an alternative technique, which utilizes geochemical signatures in otoliths as a natural tag, to questions of population structure in weakfish. Genetic studies of weakfish have found no evidence of stock structuring along the Atlantic coast. However, we found significantly more population structure, as evidenced by natal homing, than implicated by any of the genetic approaches. Natal homing may be much more common in marine fishes than is currently assumed.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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