Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:58:29.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Long Term Changes in Abundance of Eggs of the Cornish Pilchard (Sardina Pilchardus Walbaum) Off Plymouth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A. J. Southward
A. J. Southward
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The inshore fishery for the pilchard in Cornish waters has existed for several hundred years, and such records as are available concerning fluctuation in catches and market conditions have been reviewed by Couch (1865), Cushing (1957) and Culley (1971). Although pilchard have been landed from Lyme Bay, from the eastern half of the Channel, and from the southern North Sea (Couch, 1865; Furnestin, 1945; Cushing, 1957; personal communications G. T. Boalch) the catches have usually been incidental to other fisheries and more sporadic than in Cornish waters. Traditionally there are three areas fished for the Cornish pilchard: on the north-west coast around St Ives; in Mounts Bay and towards the Scillies; and between the Lizard Pt and Bolt Tail in Devon (Couch, 1865; Culley, 1971). The latter region, constituting the inshore waters of south-east Cornwall and south Devon, effectively forms the eastern limits of the regular occurrence of commercial shoals. Knowledge of the breeding and life-history of the fish in this region has always been scarce and subject to much hearsay evidence (reviewed in Southward, 1963). Up to quite recently it was thought that the main spawning area lay well to the west of the entrance to the Channel, and it was not until the investigations reported by Corbin (1947,195°) a nd Cushing (1957)tnat it was conclusively shown that extensive spawning can occur within the English Channel from May to October. The relationship of the spawning in the western Channel to the other areas of spawning off the entrance to the Channel and in the northern Bay of Biscay is illustrated in a recent series of reports (Arbault & Boutin, 1968; Arbault & Lacroix-Boutin, 1969; Arbault & Lacroix, 1971; Wallace, P. D. & Pleasants, C. A., duplicated ICES meeting paper CM 1972/J: 8), and is further demonstrated by Demir & Southward (1974) in discussing the results of a study of small scale seasonal changes in spawning intensity in inshore waters.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , August 1974 , pp. 641 - 649
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1974

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

REFERENCES

Arbault, S. & Boutin, N., 1968. Icthyoplancton. Oeufs et larves de poissons téléostéens dans le golfe de Gascogne en 1964. Revue des travaux de VOffice (scientifique et technique) des Pêches Maritimes, 32, 413–76.Google Scholar
Arbault, S. & Lacroix-Boutin, N., 1969. Epoques et aires de ponte des poissons téléostéens du golfe de Gascogne en 1965–66 (oeufs et larves). Revue des travaux de l'Office (scientifique et technique) des Pêches Maritimes, 33, 181–202.Google Scholar
Arbault, S. & Lacroix, N., 1971. Aires de ponte de la sardine, du sprat et de l'anchois dans le golfe de Gascogne et sur le plateau celtique. Résultats de 6 années d'étude. Revue des travaux de l'Office (scientifique et technique) des Pêches Maritimes, 35, 35–56.Google Scholar
Aurich, H. J., 1953. Verbreitung und Laichverhaltnisse von Sardelle und Sardine in der siidost-lichen Nordsee und ihre Veranderungen als Folge de Klimaanderung. Helgoldnder wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen, 4, 175–204.Google Scholar
Corbin, P. G., 1947. The spawning of the mackerel Scomber scombrus L., and pilchard, Clupea pilchardus Walbaum, in the Celtic Sea in 1937–39, with observations on the zooplankton indicator species, Sagitta and Muggiaea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 27, 65–132.Google Scholar
Corbin, P. G., 1948–1951. The seasonal abundance of young fish. IX. The year 1947. X. The year 1948. XI. The year 1949. Journal of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 27, 718–22; 28, 707–12; and 30, 271–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbin, P. G., 1950. Records of pilchard spawning in the English Channel. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 29, 91–95.Google Scholar
Couch, J., 1822. Some particulars of the natural history of fishes found in Cornwall. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 14, 69–92.Google Scholar
Couch, J., 1840. Observations in further illustration of the history and statistics of the pilchard fishery. Transactions of the Polytechnic Society of Cornwall, 1S40, 11–26.Google Scholar
Couch, J., 1865. A History of the Fishes of the British Islands, 4, vii, 439 pp. London: Groombridge and Sons.Google Scholar
Culley, M., 1971. The Pilchard: Biology and Exploitation, ix, 241 pp. London: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Cunningham, J. T., 1889. Studies of the reproduction and development of teleostean fishes occur-ring in the neighbourhood of Plymouth. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, N.S. 1, 10–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CUnningham, J. T., 1893. The reproduction and growth of the pilchard. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, N.S., 2, 151–7.Google Scholar
Cunningham, J. T., 1895. The life-history of the pilchard. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 3, 148–53.Google Scholar
Cushing, D. H., 1957. The number of pilchards in the Channel. Fishery Investigations, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Ser 2, 21, (5), 1–27.Google Scholar
Cushing, D. H., 1961. On the failure of the Plymouth herring fishery. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 41, 799–816.Google Scholar
Demir, N. & Southward, A. J., 1974. The distribution and abundance of eggs and larvae of teleost fishes off Plymouth in 1969 and 1970. Part 3. Eggs of pilchard (Sardina pilchardus Walbaum). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 54, 333–52.Google Scholar
Fage, J., 1920. Rapport sur la Sardine. Notes et memoires de I'Office scientifique et technique des Pêches Maritimes, 1, 1–9.Google Scholar
Furnestin, J., 1945. Contribution à l'étude biologique de la sardine atlantique (Sardina Pilchardus Walbaum). Revue des travaux de l'Office scientifique et technique des Pêches Maritimes, 13, 221–386.Google Scholar
Herrou, R., 1971. Etude biologique de la sardine du golfe de Gascogne et due plateau celtique. Revue des travaux de I'Office scientifique et technique des Peches Maritimes, 35, 455–73.Google Scholar
Russell, F. S., 1926–1969. On the seasonal abundance of young fish. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 14 (1926), 101–59; 14 (1926), 101–59; 16 (1930), 707–22; 20 (1935), 147–79; 21 (1937), 679–86; 22 (1938), 493–500; 23 (1939). 281–386; 24 (1940), 265–70; 26 (1947), 605–08; 49 (1969), 305–10.Google Scholar
Russell, F. S., 1973. A summary of the observations on the occurrence of the planktonic stages of fish off Plymouth 1924–1972. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 53, 347–55.Google Scholar
Russell, F. S., Southward, A. J., Boalch, G. T. & Butler, E. I., 1971. Changes in biological conditions in the English Channel off Plymouth during the last half-century. Nature, London, 234, 468–70.Google Scholar
Southward, A. J., 1963. The distribution of some plankton animals in the English Channel and approaches. III. Theories about long-term biological changes, including fish. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 43, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, A. J., 1970. Improved methods of sampling post-larval young fish and macroplankton. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 50, 689–712.Google Scholar
Southward, A. J., 1974. Changes in the plankton community of the Western English Channel. Nature, London, 249, 180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Southward, A. J. & Butler, E. I., 1972. A note on further changes of sea temperature in the Plymouth area. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 52, 931–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar