Abstract
Ichthyological literature gives the distribution of M. scolopax as along the whole coast of West Africa. However, analysis of this literature and the results of trawling surveys in the North-East Atlantic suggest only exceptional occurrences in the tropics. Plankton surveys off N.W. Africa, up to and including 1977, rarely yielded M. scolopax larvae off the coast of the southern Sahara and not at all off Mauritania, though a few specimens were collected after having been swept southwards in the open ocean by the Canary Current. Larvae did occur off northern Mauritania in February 1983. Details of distribution, abundance and length composition of early stages caught during the period January–April 1983 are given. It is concluded that the reproductive range of M. scolopax (as well as that of some other temperate species) extends south of that documented and that its spawning season there may be shorter than in the centre of this species' distribution. The findings are discussed in relation to interannual variation of upwelling intensity and the current system off N.W. Africa.
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