Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:40:19.730Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Abundance, movements and size of gadoids (Teleostei) in the Severn Estuary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

P. N. Claridge  and
I. C. Potter
P. N. Claridge
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY
I. C. Potter
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Samples collected regularly from the intake screens of power stations between July 1972 and June 1977 demonstrate that the Gadidae is the most abundant and diverse teleost family in the inner Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary. The first records for the Severn Estuary of two cold water species, northern rockling and Norway pout, which were present in appreciable numbers, may be related to the effects of the changes that commenced in south-western English waters during the 1960s. Maximum numbers of the five most abundant gadoids were attained in different years, with the greatest catches being recorded for whiting and poor cod in 1975/6, bib and pollack in 1974/5 and northern rockling in 1976/7. Peak abundance in the middle estuary was reached by whiting, bib, poor cod and pollack in the autumn and by northern rockling in the winter or early spring. The 0 + age class of these species, which was always by far the most predominant category, showed increases in mean length during their relatively short stay in the estuary. Movement out of the shallows of the inner Severn Estuary by whiting and also apparently by some other gadoids occurred when salinities fell below 10‰. The size of poor cod and pollack in the autumn was not as great in 1974 as in 1975 and 1976, presumably reflecting the effect on growth of lower summer temperatures in the first of these years. Poor cod was represented by five age classes and attained at the end of the first to fifth years of life standard lengths of approximately 80 mm (≡4.8 g), 110 mm (≡11.7g), 140 mm (≡23.0 g), 170 mm (≡39.6 g) and 210 mm (≡71.6 g) respectively.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 64 , Issue 4 , November 1984 , pp. 771 - 790
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abou-Seedo, F. S. & Potter, I. C., 1979. The estuarine phase in the spawning run of the river lamprey Lampetra fluviatilis. Journal of Zoology, 188, 5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Badsha, K. S. & Sainsbury, M., 1978. Aspects of the biology and heavy metal accumulation of Ciliata mustela. Journal of Fish Biology, 12, 213–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beal, K. L., 1980. Territorial sea fisheries management and estuarine dependence. In Estuarine Perspectives (ed. Kennedy, V. S.), pp. 67–77. Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaber, S. J. M. & Blaber, T. G., 1980. Factors affecting the distribution of juvenile estuarine and inshore fish. Journal of Fish Biology, 17, 143–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blacker, R. W., 1981. Recent occurrences of blue whiting, Micromesistius poutassou, and Norway pout, Trisopterus esmarkii, in the English Channel and southern North Sea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 61, 307–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chubb, C. F., Potter, I. C., Grant, C. J., Lenanton, R. C. J. & Wallace, J., 1981. Age structure, growth rates and movement of sea mullet, Mugil cephalus L., and yellow-eye mullet, Aldrichetta forsteri (Valenciennes), in the Swan-Avon river system, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 32, 605–628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claridge, P. N. & Gardner, D. C., 1977. The biology of the northern rockling, Ciliata septentrionalis, in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 57, 839–848.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claridge, P. N. & Gardner, D. C., 1978. Growth and movements of the twaite shad, Alosa fallax (Lacépède), in the Severn Estuary. Journal of Fish Biology, 12, 203–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claridge, P. N. & Potter, I. C., 1983. Movements, abundance, age composition and growth of bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, in the Severn Estuary and inner Bristol Channel. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 63, 871–879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, A., 1980. Gadoid populations of western Scottish sea lochs and their exchanges with west coast stocks. In Fjord Oceanography (ed. Freeland, H. J., Farmer, D. M. and Levings, C. D.), pp. 415–421. Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cronin, L. E. & Mansueti, A. J., 1971. The biology of the estuary. In Proceedings of a Symposium on the Biological Significance of Estuaries (ed. Douglas, P. A. and Stroud, R. H.), pp. 14–39. Washington, D.C.: Sports Fishing Institute.Google Scholar
Day, J. H., Blaber, S. J. M. & Wallace, J. H., 1981. Estuarine fishes. In Estuarine Ecology with Particular Reference to Southern Africa (ed. Day, J. H.), pp. 197–221. Rotterdam: Balkema.Google Scholar
Department of Energy, United Kingdom, 1981. Tidal Power from the Severn Estuary. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. [Energy Paper no. 46.]Google Scholar
Farmer, G. J. & Beamish, F. W. H., 1969. Oxygen consumption of Tilapia nilotica in relation to swimming speed and salinity. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 26, 2807–2821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, D. C., 1978. The Biology of the Whiting in the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel. M.Sc. Thesis, University of Bath.Google Scholar
Gordon, J. D. M., 1977 a. The fish populations of inshore waters of the west coast of Scotland. The unusual occurrence of the blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) and some notes on its biology. Journal of Fish Biology, 11, 121–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, J. D. M., 1977 b. The fish populations of the west coast of Scotland. The biology of the Norway pout (Trisopterus esmarkii). Journal of Fish Biology, 10, 417–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, J. D. M., 1977 c. The fish populations in inshore waters of the west coast of Scotland. The distribution, abundance and growth of the whiting (Merlangius merlangus L.). Journal of Fish Biology, 10, 587–596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, J. D. M. & De, Silva S. S., 1980. The fish populations of the west Scotland shelf. Part 1. Oceanography and Marine Biology, an Annual Review, 18, 317–366.Google Scholar
Hartley, P. H. T., 1940. The Saltash tuck-net fishery and the ecology of some estuarine fishes. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 24, 1–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huddart, R. & Arthur, D. R., 1971. Lampreys and teleost fish, other than whitebait, in the polluted Thames estuary. International Journal of Environmental Studies, 2, 143–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenanton, R. C. J., Robertson, A. I. & Hansen, J. A., 1982. Nearshore accumulations of detached macrophytes as nursery areas for fish. Marine Ecology – Progress Series, 9, 51–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, A. J., 1941. Studies on the biology of the Bristol Channel. V. The marine fish fauna of the southern shores of the Bristol Channel. Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists’ Society, 9, 202–230.Google Scholar
Lutz, P. L., 1975. Adaptive and evolutionary aspects of the ionic content of fishes. Copeia, 1975, 369–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mchugh, J. L., 1976. Estuarine fisheries: are they doomed? In Estuarine Processes, vol. 1 (ed. Smith, R. F., Swartz, A. H. and Massman, W. H.), pp. 15–27. Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddock, L. & Swann, C. L., 1977. A statistical analysis of some trends in sea temperature and climate in the Plymouth area in the last 70 years. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 57, 317–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, L. H., 1933. The sea fish and fisheries of the Bristol district. Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists’ Society, 7, 442–462.Google Scholar
Palmer, C. J. & Culley, M. B., 1983. Aspects of the biology of the sandsmelt Atherina boyeri Risso, 1810 (Teleostei: Atherinidae) at Oldbury-upon-Severn, Gloucestershire, England. Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Science, 16, 163–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, C. J., Culley, M. B. & Claridge, P. N., 1979. A further occurrence of Atherina boyeri Risso in North Eastern Atlantic waters. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 4, 71–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollard, D. A., 1976. Estuaries must be protected. Australian Fisheries, 36, 6–10.Google Scholar
Radford, P. J., Uncles, R. J. & Morris, A. W., 1981. Simulating the impact of technological change on dissolved cadmium distribution in the Severn Estuary. Water Research, 15, 1045–1052.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raitt, D. F. S., 1965. The stocks of Trisopterus esmarkii (Nilsson) off north-west Scotland and in the North Sea. Marine Research, no. 1, 24 pp.Google Scholar
Raitt, D. F. S., 1968 a. The population dynamics of the Norway pout in the North Sea. Marine Research, no. 5, 24 pp.Google Scholar
Raitt, D. F. S., 1968 b. Synopsis of biological data on the blue whiting Micromesistius poutassou (Risso, 1810). F.A.O. Fisheries Synopsis, no. 34, 35 pp.Google Scholar
Raitt, D. F. S., 1968 c. The biology and commercial potential of the blue whiting in the north-east Atlantic. Rapport et procés-verbaux des rèunions. Conseil permanent international pour l'exploration de la mer, 158, 108–115.Google Scholar
Raitt, D. F. S. & Adams, J. S., 1965. The food and feeding of Trisopterus esmarkii (Nilsson) in the northern North Sea. Marine Research, no. 3, 28 pp.Google Scholar
Raitt, D. F. S. & Mason, J., 1968. The distribution of Norway pout in the North Sea and adjacent waters. Marine Research, no. 4, 19 pp.Google Scholar
Russell, F. S., 1980. On the distribution of postlarval fish in the Bristol Channel. Bulletin of Marine Ecology, 8, 283–290.Google Scholar
Scheffé, H., 1959. The Analysis of Variance. 477 pp. John Wiley.Google Scholar
Southward, A. J., 1980. The western English Channel – an inconstant ecosystem? Nature, London, 285, 361–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A. J. & Mattacola, A. D., 1980. Occurrence of Norway pout, Trisopterus esmarkii (Nilsson) and blue whiting, Micromesistius poutassou (Risso), in the western English Channel off Plymouth. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 60, 39–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Titmus, G., Claridge, P. N. & Potter, I. C., 1978. Growth and abundance of o-group herrings, Clupea harengus L., in the Severn Estuary. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 64, 251–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van, Den Broek W. L. F., 1979. A seasonal survey of fish populations in the Lower Medway Estuary, Kent, based on power station screen samples. Estuarine and Coastal Marine Science, 9, 1–15.Google Scholar
Wheeler, A., 1969. The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe. 613 pp. Macmillan: London.Google Scholar
Wheeler, A., 1979. The Tidal Thames. The History of a River and Its Fishes. 228 pp. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar