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Summer distribution of fish larvae in northern Aegean Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2009

Athanassios C. Tsikliras ,
Emmanuil T. Koutrakis ,
Georgios K. Sylaios  and
Argyris A. Kallianiotis
Athanassios C. Tsikliras*
Affiliation:
Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly, 384 46, Nea Ionia, Volos, Greece
Emmanuil T. Koutrakis
Affiliation:
Fisheries Research Institute–NAGREF, Nea Peramos, 640 07, Kavala, Greece
Georgios K. Sylaios
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Ecological Engineering and Technology, Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 671 00, Xanthi, Greece
Argyris A. Kallianiotis
Affiliation:
Fisheries Research Institute–NAGREF, Nea Peramos, 640 07, Kavala, Greece
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: A.C. Tsikliras, Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly, 384 46, Nea Ionia, Volos, Greece email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Larval fish and hydrographic data were collected in Kavala Gulf (northern Aegean Sea) across a fine scale grid of 17 stations in two surveys, carried out in the beginning of July 2002 and 2003. Despite the different taxonomic resolution and excluding the unidentified larvae, 22 taxa were caught in 2002 and 27 in 2003. Seventeen taxa were present in both years' collections. A total of 833 larvae were collected during the two samplings. The adults of several larvae caught, although sometimes at very low concentrations, are species with high commercial value or represent a major proportion of the captured production of the northern Aegean Sea. The larvae of European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) were most abundant in both years followed by the brown comber (Serranus hepatus), the gobies (Gobius sp.) and, only for 2003, round sardinella (Sardinella aurita). Maximum anchovy larval densities reached 4145/10 m2 and 13852/10 m2 in the 2002 and 2003 surveys, respectively. The spatial extent of anchovy larvae was also high as they were collected at 12 stations in 2002 and at 15 in 2003. Besides water circulation, the spatial distribution of fish larvae was largely influenced by temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen.

Keywords

summerlarval distributionfishnorthern Aegean Sea
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 89 , Issue 6 , September 2009 , pp. 1137 - 1146
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2009

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