Reproductive Cycle of the Edible Sea Urchin Paracentrotus lividus (Echinodermata: Echinoidae) in the Aegean Sea

Dimitris Vafidis,Kyratso Kyriakouli,Chryssanthi Antoniadou

doi:10.3390/w11051029

Dimitris Vafidis, Kyratso Kyriakouli + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/w11051029

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Abstract

The sustainable management of fisheries resources requires extensive knowledge of their reproductive biology, which is scarcely the case for marine invertebrates. Sea urchins are among the most intensively harvested invertebrates, since their gonads, or “roe”, constitute a highly appreciated gastronomic delicacy, causing a severe decline in natural populations worldwide. In the Mediterranean, the typical commercial echinoid species is Paracentrotus lividus; its biology, however, has not been adequately studied in the Aegean Sea. Within this context, the present study examined the reproductive biology of the edible sea urchin, P. lividus, in the Aegean Sea (Pagasitikos Gulf) over a two-year period. Adult specimens were randomly collected by SCUBA diving (3–5 m) at monthly intervals to determine the gonad-somatic index, fecundity, and gametogenesis through the morphological and histological examination of the gonads. An annual reproductive cycle was defined in both years with a clear spawning peak in early spring, conforming to previous reports from other Mediterranean populations. A discrete secondary spawning period was also detected in early winter, as the species undergoes a second gametogenic event. These results are indicative for the increased reproductive potential of P. lividus in its south distributional range, suggesting a relevant revision of the official fishing season of the species.

Highlights

The common sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck, 1816), is a gregarious species, widely distributed on the sublittoral rocky shores and seagrass meadows of the Mediterranean and the eastern Atlantic coasts
The study was conducted in the Pagasitikos Gulf, a semi-enclosed, shallow water basin [17] connected with the Aegean Sea through the narrow but deep Trikeri channel (Figure 1), which safeguards water renewal within the Gulf [18]
1680 P. lividus specimens were processed—840 from S1 and 840 from S2 (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

The common sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck, 1816), is a gregarious species, widely distributed on the sublittoral rocky shores and seagrass meadows of the Mediterranean and the eastern Atlantic coasts. It is commercially harvested for its gonads, or “roe”, which constitute a highly appreciated gastronomic delicacy of great economic profit [1]. In Greece, apart from some temporal restrictions on harvesting that were mostly addressed to amateurs, no official regulations had been established to promote the long-term sustainable exploitation of this resource, until very recently. The above regulations, have not been documented on relevant scientific data, as basic knowledge on the biology—reproductive biology, in particular—of P. lividus from the Greek territory, or even the SE Mediterranean, is missing

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