Intraspecific Variations in Size- and Age-at-maturity for Red Bandfish, Cepola macrophthalma

Abstract

Intraspecific variations in size- and age-at-maturity were studied in red bandfish, Cepola macrophthalma, in two adjacent gulfs of the western Aegean Sea, in the southern of which the population of red bandfish is stunted. Samples were collected with a commercial trawler over a grid of 34 stations at depths ranging from 22 to 222 m. The hypothesis tested was that length and age at 50% maturity, Lm50 and tm50 respectively, for males and females do not differ in the two regions. The results showed that the Lm50 of both males and females in the northern area was by 3.5 cm larger than that in the southern area and the 95% confidence intervals of Lm50 in the two areas did not overlap. Although the tm50 of males was larger in the northern area, the 95% confidence intervals of tm50 overlapped in the two areas whereas for females, the tm50 was larger by 0.4 years in the northern area and the 95% confidence intervals of tm50 in the two areas did not overlap. Stunting of the red bandfish growth in the southern area is the result of the combination of an extremely low food availability with higher temperatures prevailing in that area. Implications of these fine spatial scale intraspecific differences for the fisheries management of the highly oligotrophic eastern Mediterranean Sea are also discussed.