Larimichthys Polyactis Research Articles

Occurrence and risk assessment of fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines in cultured fish from a coastal region of northern China.

Occurrence and levels of 11 fluoroquinolones (FQs) and four tetracyclines (TC) in 14 cultured fish species from a coastal city in the northern China were investigated. Five FQs (ofloxacin, enoxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, and sarafloxacin) and oxytetracycline were detected. Lower detection frequencies of antibiotics were observed in the marine fish. The concentrations of ΣFQs ranged from not detectable (nd) to 130ng/g wet weight (ww) (median, 7.2ng/g ww), and the concentration range of ΣTCs was nd to 200ng/g ww (median, nd ng/g ww). The Chinese snakehead contained the highest concentrations of ΣFQs (130ng/g ww) and the small yellow croaker accumulated the highest concentrations of ΣTCs (200ng/g ww), respectively. Although the calculated estimated daily intakes (EDI) suggested that the consumption of these cultured fish from this region was not associated with significant human health risks, this study provides useful information that will be helpful in the appropriate antibiotic use in aquaculture. To our knowledge, this can be the first report on the occurrence and levels of antibiotics in cage-cultured marine fish from the Bohai Rim region, China.

Feeding habits of small yellow croaker Larimichthys polyactis in the Bohai Sea

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 渤海小黄鱼摄食习性 DOI: 作者: 作者单位: 1. 中国海洋大学水产学院, 山东 青岛 266003;2. 农业部海洋渔业可持续发展重点实验室, 山东省渔业资源与生态环境重点实验室, 中国水产科学研究院黄海水产研究所, 山东 青岛 266071;3. 青岛海洋科学与技术国家实验室海洋渔业科学与食物产出过程功能实验室, 山东 青岛 266237 作者简介: 魏秀锦(1993-),女,硕士研究生,主要从事鱼类摄食生态学研究.E-mail:w_xj4185@126.com 通讯作者: 中图分类号: S932 基金项目: 国家重点基础研究发展计划项目（2015CB453303）；中央级公益性科研院所基本科研业务费资助项目（20603022016003）；山东省泰山学者专项. Feeding habits of small yellow croaker Larimichthys polyactis in the Bohai Sea Author: Affiliation: 1. College of Fisheries, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China;2. Key Laboratory of Sustainable Development of Marine Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture;Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fishery Resources and Eco-Environment, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China;3. Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266237, China Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:根据2009年8月至2011年5月4个航次渤海底拖网调查所获得的样品，采用胃含物分析法、K-W检验和聚类分析等方法，对38~218 mm体长范围小黄鱼（）的摄食习性及其随体长、季节的变化进行了研究，并探讨了小黄鱼摄食随海域和年际的时空变化。结果表明：渤海小黄鱼摄食的饵料有40余种，主要以鱼类、虾类和浮游动物为食，优势饵料种类为六丝钝尾虾虎鱼（Euphausia pacifica）、长额刺糠虾（）。渤海小黄鱼在春夏秋这三个季节中，春季的摄食强度最低，夏季和秋季的摄食强度都较高，不同的是夏季摄食率更高，而秋季的摄食量更高。随着体长的增大，渤海小黄鱼的摄食策略发生了相应的变化。从摄食强度分析，在体长较小时，胃饱满指数低，小黄鱼通过高摄食率来提高摄食强度；随着体长的增加，通过高胃饱满指数来提高摄食强度。从摄食的饵料个体分析，小黄鱼采取了随着体长增加摄食饵料个数减少，饵料个体增大的摄食策略。从摄食的饵料组成分析，小黄鱼随着体长增加发生了显著的食性转换现象：体长小于60 mm属浮游动物食性；体长60~99 mm时，属混合动物食性；体长100~119 mm时，属虾食性；体长超过120 mm，包括了虾/鱼食性和鱼食性。小黄鱼摄食的时空变化与环境中优势饵料生物的数量波动密切相关。 Abstract:Based on four bottom trawl surveys conducted in the Bohai Sea from August 2009 to May 2011, 2979 stomach samples of small yellow croaker with body lengths of 38-218 mm were collected. Stomach contents analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis test and the cluster analysis were used to study their feeding habits and ontogenetic, temporal and spatial variations. The results indicated that small yellow croaker fed on more than 40 prey species. Euphausia pacifica, were the dominant prey item. With the increase of fish size, there is a corresponding change in the feeding strategy of the Bohai Sea small yellow croaker. According to the feeding intensity, as indicated by the percentage of empty stomachs (PES) and mean stomach fullness index (MSFI), MSFI was low at the smaller fish size, resulting in the small yellow croaker increasing the feeding intensity as observed by the low PES. With the increase of fish size, the feeding intensity was enhanced by increasing MSFI. According to the prey items, the mean number of prey per fish decreased significantly with the increased fish size, while the mean weight of prey items per fish increased. According to diet compositions, the feeding habits of small yellow croaker had significant ontogenetic variations. Small yellow croaker less than 60 mm in body length mainly fed on the zooplanktivores copepoda, euphausiacea and mysidacea. At 60-99 mm long, it mainly fed on demersal shrimps and copepoda. The frequency of demersal shrimps in the food increased gradually with the increasing fish size, whereas the frequency of copepod decreased. Thus, fish with a 60-99 mm body length belonged to the generalist predators group. At 100-119 mm long, it belonged to shrimp predators group, mainly feeding on demersal shrimps at a frequency of more than 60%, and fish. It still mainly fed on demersal shrimps and fish at greater than 120 mm in body length with the frequency of fish in the food increasing gradually, and ultimately more than the frequency of demersal shrimps (beyond 60%). Thus, fish greater than 120 mm long included shrimp/fish predators and piscivores. The feeding intensity varied significantly across seasons. The feeding intensity of spring was lowest and the feeding intensity of summer and autumn were higher. The difference in the feeding rate was higher (PES was lower) in summer and the feeding amount (MSFI) was higher in autumn. Seasonal variations were also discovered in diet composition. were the dominant preys in spring, were the dominant preys in summer, whereas was the dominant prey in autumn. By analyzing historical data, we found that the feeding habits of small yellow croaker in the Bohai Sea were closely related to the composition and abundance of dominant prey organisms. The temporal and spatial variations in the feeding habits of small yellow croaker is closely related to the fluctuation of dominant prey species in the environment. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Bottom-temperature distribution characteristics of small yellow croaker ( Larimichthys polyactis ) in the East China Sea and comparison of analysis methods

Bottom-temperature distribution characteristics of small yellow croaker ( <i>Larimichthys polyactis</i> ) in the East China Sea and comparison of analysis methods

Evaluation of temporal changes of small yellow croaker stock status in East China Sea using trawl survey indices

Evaluation of temporal changes of small yellow croaker stock status in East China Sea using trawl survey indices

Comparative cytogenetics in three Sciaenid species (Teleostei, Perciformes): evidence of interspecific chromosomal diversification

BackgroundSpecies belonging to the Sciaenidae family present a karyotype composed by 48 acrocentric chromosomes and are thus considered a striking example of chromosomal conservation. In this family, three species are extensively studied including Larimichthys crocea, Larimichthys polyactis and Nibea albiflora due to their importance in fishery and aquaculture in East Asia. Despite abundant data of population genetics available for some of them, cytogenetic information on these species is still scarce and obtained by conventional cytogenetic protocols. Therefore, a more detailed cytogenomic investigation was performed in these species to analyze their karyotype differentiation using conventional staining techniques and fluorescence in situ hybridization to map several repetitive DNAs.ResultsThe three species showed a slight karyotype differentiation with 4sm + 2st + 42a in L. polyactis, 20st + 28a in L. crocea and 48a in N. albiflora. Additionally, the mapping of repetitive sequences further revealed a number of interspecific differences among them. Particularly, 18S and 5S rDNA sites showed syntenic arrangements in N. albiflora and non-syntenic arrangements in both Larimichthys species. The microsatellites (CA)15 and (GA)15 showed conspicuous terminal clusters in some chromosomes of all species. On the other hand, (CGG)10 repeats, Rex6 elements and U2 snRNA displayed a scattered distribution on the chromosomes.ConclusionsAlthough the three Sciaenid species examined displayed a general pattern of karyotypic conservatism, we explored chromosomal diversification among them. The diversificated karyotypic macrostructure is followed by intergeneric evolutionary diversification of the repetitive sequences. The data indicate some degree of intergeneric evolutionary diversification at chromosomal level, and suggest the evolutionary dynamics among Sciaenid species, higher than previously thought. The present cytogenetic data provide new insight into the chromosomal diversification in Sciaenidae, and contribute to inferring the chromosomal rearrangements and trends of karyotype evolution in this fish group.

Biological responses of small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) to multiple stressors: a case study in the Yellow Sea, China

Temporal changes in biological characteristics of small yellow croaker Larimichthys polyactis in the Yellow Sea were examined for the period of 1960–2008. The body size and age of small yellow croaker decreased substantially, in particular, average length of fish in 2008 was reduced by ~85% than those occurring in 1985, and at that time ~93% of the total catch was dominated by one-year-old individuals. Correspondingly, growth parameters also varied significantly over the years, i.e., k (growth coefficient) and t 0 (zero-length age) gradually increased from 0.26 and–0.58 year in 1960 to 0.56 and–0.25 year in 2008, respectively. Although, L∞ (body length) sharply decreased from 34.21 cm in 1960 to 24.06 cm in 2008, and t r (inflexion age) decreased from 3.78 year in 1960 to 1.61 year in 2008. There was a great increase both in natural mortality coefficient and fishing mortality coefficient. However, according to the gray correlation analysis, changes in the biological characteristics of small yellow croaker were induced by different stressors ranked as: fishing vessel power>feeding grade>sea surface temperature. This study suggests that the active fishery management measures for biological characters of fish populations should be considered.

Lipid oxidation and fatty acid composition in salt-dried yellow croaker (Pseudosciaena polyactis) during processing

Lipid oxidation in salt-dried yellow croaker (Pseudosciaena polyactis) was evaluated during processing with commonly used analytical indices, such as the peroxide value (POV), the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value, and oxidative-relative lipoxygenase (LOX) activity. Additionally, fatty acids were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Both POV and TBARS increased significantly (P 0.931.

Mesh size selectivity of the gillnet in East China Sea

A production test using several gillnets with various mesh sizes was carried out to discover the selectivity of gillnets in the East China Sea. The result showed that the composition of the catch species was synthetically affected by panel height and mesh size. The bycatch species of the 10-m nets were more than those of the 6-m nets. For target species, the effect of panel height on juvenile fish was ambiguous, but the number of juvenile fish declined quickly with the increase in mesh size. According to model deviance (D) and Akaike’s information criterion, the bi-normal model provided the best fit for small yellow croaker (Larimichthy polyactis), and the relative retention was 0.2 and 1, respectively. For Chelidonichthys spinosus, the log-normal was the best model; the right tilt of the selectivity curve was obvious and well coincided with the original data. The contact population of small yellow croaker showed a bi-normal distribution, and body lengths ranged from 95 to 215 mm. The contact population of C. spinosus showed a normal distribution, and the body lengths ranged from 95 to 205 mm. These results can provide references for coastal fishery management.

Early life history of the small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) in sandy ridges of the South Yellow Sea

ABSTRACTThe early life history of the small yellow croaker Larimichthys polyactis was studied using the otolith microchemistry of juvenile fish and a recruitment survey in the sandy ridges of the South Yellow Sea. The otolith Sr/Ca ratio regime shifted markedly at the age of 5–7 days (early April) and 37–41 days (around early May). Subsequently, the Sr/Ca ratio was almost constant until late June, indicating an aggregation of L. polyactis juveniles in the relatively stable habitat of the sandy ridges, which was supported by a recruitment survey that showed a rapid increase in the number of juveniles in the same area between early May and the end of June. Variations in the Sr/Ca ratio between early April and early May might reflect a habitat adaptive strategy of L. polyactis in the pelagic stage to hydrodynamic processes of the sandy ridges. Based on the aforementioned habitat shifts and recruitment phenology, it was hypothesised that L. polyactis juveniles disperse between early April and early May, inhabit sandy ridges to feed, and migrate offshore in late June.

Mechanistic understanding of low methylmercury bioaccessibility from crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) muscle tissue

Recent research indicates that dietary exposure to mercury and other metals from crayfish consumption poses a human health concern, particularly in regions with high crayfish-consuming populations. To better understand consumption risk from methylmercury (MeHg), we quantified MeHg bioaccessibility in edible tail muscle of cooked red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii, collected from seven cities in China), versus cooked fillet tissue of two finfish species: yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) and snakehead (Channa argus). Results indicated that digestive solubilization rate (DSR) of MeHg in crayfish (7.8±3.9% for restaurant-crayfish and 9.8±0.8% for market-crayfish) was lower than the rate in yellow croaker (25.8±2.7%) and snakehead (26.2±4.7%) tissue, suggesting that relatively low MeHg bioaccessibility in crayfish may reduce dietary exposure to humans. Three possible mechanisms for the reduced MeHg DSR in crayfish tissue were examined: MeHg-Se interactions, MeHg subcellular fractionation, and Hg-amino acid binding. Selenium concentrations were comparable among the examined species, and no significant relationship was observed between tissue Se and MeHg DSR. Similarly, observed differences in subcellular fractionation of MeHg could not explain the species-specific MeHg DSR. Therefore, MeHg-Se interactions and MeHg subcellular fractionation do not explain the relatively low MeHg bioaccessibility in crayfish. Significantly higher cysteine and arginine content was found in crayfish than in the finfish. We suspect that the lower MeHg bioaccessibility of crayfish tail muscle may be attributed to the higher cysteine concentrations, and thus, stronger MeHg-protein binding in crayfish. These results support the interpretation that bioaccessibility differences will alter risk interpretations for MeHg, especially when comparing hazard across aquatic food types.

Signatures of temporal genetic differentiation of the small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) revealed by microsatellite markers

Population genetics is a key component of policy development for fisheries management and conservation. Spatial genetic structure of the small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) has been previously reported, however, to date, no study has investigated temporal changes in genetic composition of this species. In the present study, temporal population-genetic structure was assessed by 15 microsatellite markers, and a temporal change in genetic composition of L. polyactis was observed. The temporal genetic variation of L. polyactis populations might be attributed to fishing-induced or ecological changes for this species. These results provided new perspectives on the population genetic structure of L. polyactis, which could have significant implications for sustainable management and utilization of this important fishery resource.

Niche and interspecific association of the dominant fish in the south coastal waters of Wenzhou, China

The studies about the niche and interspecific association in China were mainly focused on the plants, birds and marine animals, and seldom on fish. Based on the fishery resources survey in spring (May) and autumn (September) in 2015, the associations among major fish species in south coastal waters of Wenzhou were investigated. The methods including niche breadth, niche overlap, variance ratio (VR), Χ2-test, association coefficient (AC), percentage of co-occurrence (PC) and point correlation coefficients (Ф) were used. The results showed that 47 fish species were identified, including 9 orders, 27 families and 41 genera. Four species were dominant species and 9 were important species, which together accounted for 17%. The niche breadth cluster analysis demonstrated two clearly identifiable ecological niches. The first one referred to wide niche that included Harpodon nehereus, Collichthys lucidus, Engraulis japonicas, Pampus echinogaster, Argyrosomus argentatus, Polynemus sextarius, Decapterus maruadsi and Trichiurus haumela, and the second one was narrow niche that included Muraenesox cinereus, Amblychaeturichthys hexanema, Cunoglossus robustus, Pseudosciaena polyactis and Ilisha elongate. The niche overlap value of the main fish was 0-0.90, indicating that there was difference in the resource utilization among the species. The ecological niche widths of C. robustus and M. cinereus were narrow, and the overlap values were high. This indicated that there was competition between these two species. The VR analysis revealed significant positive correlation among the main fish species. In view of the advantages of Ф value, which could reduce the impact of the analysis results of Χ2-test, AC and PC to the interspecific association, the Ф value method was selected in this study, and the association of 63 couples were positive. Both the interspecific association and ecological niche had different degrees of correlation with the stability of community structure and community succession.

Non-destructive measurement of water and fat contents, water dynamics during drying and adulteration detection of intact small yellow croaker by low field NMR

Non-destructive and fast measurement and characterization of fish is highly desired during various processing treatment. In this study, water dynamics during drying process and adulteration with carrageen were detected using low field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) technique in small yellow croaker. Prediction models of water and fat contents were established based on LF-NMR Carr–Purcell–Meiboom–Gill (CPMG) data combined with principal component regression (PCR) or partial least squares regression (PLSR). The Rcv 2 of water and fat content by PLSR model was 0.9877 and 0.9054, and the root mean square error (RMSE) of cross-validation was 9.2360 and 3.3730%, respectively. Water dynamics during hot-air drying process showed that the amount of immobile water significantly decreased, and good correlation was found between the moisture ratio and peak area by Two-term model. In addition, the adulterated small yellow croaker with carrageen or distilled water could be clearly distinguished by principal component analysis (PCA) in a fast and non-destructive manner. All the results demonstrated that the LF-NMR may have great potential in fast and non-destructive analysis of small yellow croakers during various processing treatment.

Growth and mortality of exploited fishes in China's coastal seas and their uses for yield-per-recruit analyses

Given the scarcity of information suitable for other forms of fish stock assessments, the growth, and mortality of 10 important marine exploited fishes in China's coastal seas were estimated, based on published length‐frequency data and the ELEFAN approach and software. The resulting parameters, complemented with growth curves from FishBase were then used for yield‐per‐recruit analyses. These 10 species were both traditional commercial species (Trichiurus lepturus, Larimichthys polyactis, Scomber japonicus) and less commercial interest species (Coilia nasus, Engraulis japonicus, Decapterus maruadsi, Psenopsis anomala, Coilia mystus, Setipinna tenuifilis, Harpadon nehereus). The yield‐per‐recruit analyses indicated that the fishing mortality experienced by these 10 fish species was very high, especially in view of the extremely small cod‐end mesh sizes deployed by Chinese trawlers, of about 10 mm or less (vs. 25 mm as minimum legal size). More precisely, all 10 species suffered from growth overfishing, which was very pronounced in large species. Indeed, enlarging cod‐end mesh size, by increasing mean sizes at first capture, would increase yield‐per‐recruit for all 10 fish species by a factor of up to 2.5. Obviously, such increases in mesh size would have to be in tandem with other management measures designed to ensure the sustainability of China's marine fisheries resources.

Effect of chitosan microcapsules loaded with nisin on the preservation of small yellow croaker

Chitosan-nisin (CS-nisin) microcapsules were prepared and characterized. Its preservation properties (chemical stability, microbiological stability, color and sensory properties) were examined during the storage of small yellow croaker (Pseudosciaena polyactis). The results showed that CS-nisin microcapsules were spherical in shape with particle size greater than 1 μm. A significantly higher efficiency of CS-nisin microcapsules in inhibiting microorganism growth, lipid oxidation and protein degradation was observed, extending the shelf life of small yellow croaker during the storage by 6–9 days in comparision with CS, nisin treatment alone or the control according to the TVC assay, suggesting a better preservation effect of the microcapsules.

Mitochondrial DNA variation and population genetic structure in the small yellow croaker at the coast of Yellow Sea and East China Sea

Small yellow croaker is one of the most important fishery species in China. The mass–scale artificial propagation of this fish species was initially developed in 2015 with the aim of facilitating the fish production stock enhancement and aquaculture programs in the future. In the present study, the wild broodfish and its corresponding progeny along with three other wild populations were sampled and subjected to sequence analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. The genetic diversity and population genetic structure were evaluated with a total sample size of 141 individuals representing the populations of the Yellow Sea (Qingdao and Lvsi populations) and the East China Sea (Xiangshan and Ningde populations). The wild populations were characterized by high haplotype diversity (0.925–0.976) and low nucleotide diversity (0.376%–0.560%). The hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) analysis and the values of pairwise Ф-statistics (ФST) indicated non-significant genetic differentiation among the four wild populations. The hatchery stock XSH exhibited lower indices of genetic diversity compared with the wild populations that could be attributed to the small effective population size. The findings of the present study have valuable insight to the sustainable management and utilization of this resource.

Length-weight and length-length relationships of eight fish species from Bohai Bay, China

Length–weight and length–length relationships (LWRs and LLRs) for eight fish species collected quarterly by trawl net in Bohai Bay, China, were estimated in a total of 1,395 specimens from 2012 to 2015. These were Pholis fangi, Setipinna taty, Engraulis japonicus, Larimichthys polyactis, Thryssa kammalensis, Scomberomorus niphonius, Johnius grypotus and Sardinella zunasi. The LWRs for the last two fish species are first reports for FishBase.

In-depth transcriptome analysis of Larimichthys polyactis, de novo assembly, functional annotation

Larimichthys polyactis (small yellow croaker) is a commercially important marine benthic fish, and is the main catching target of fisheries in China, Japan and Korea. Researches across different fields have progressed the understanding of this species; however, no genomics studies of this fish have been reported so far. In this study, we performed de novo transcriptome sequencing of eight cDNA libraries from brain, gill, heart, intestine, liver, muscle, ovary, and testis tissues of L. polyactis. A total of 182,227,948 paired-end reads (>200bp) were generated, from which 134,439 transcripts were assembled. These transcripts yielded a total of 93,990 non-redundant transcripts (unigenes) that were assigned functional annotations based on BlastX searches (E-value<1×10−5) against the following databases: NCBI NR, Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, CDD, Pfam, and COG. In addition, 12,539 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified. Our study provides a valuable resource of L. polyactis transcriptomic data that are expected to be useful for gene expression and functional studies of L. polyactis.

Linear mixed-effects models to describe length-weight relationships for yellow croaker (Larimichthys Polyactis) along the north coast of China.

In this study, length-weight relationships and relative condition factors were analyzed for Yellow Croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) along the north coast of China. Data covered six regions from north to south: Yellow River Estuary, Coastal Waters of Northern Shandong, Jiaozhou Bay, Coastal Waters of Qingdao, Haizhou Bay, and South Yellow Sea. In total 3,275 individuals were collected during six years (2008, 2011–2015). One generalized linear model, two simply linear models and nine linear mixed effect models that applied the effects from regions and/or years to coefficient a and/or the exponent b were studied and compared. Among these twelve models, the linear mixed effect model with random effects from both regions and years fit the data best, with lowest Akaike information criterion value and mean absolute error. In this model, the estimated a was 0.0192, with 95% confidence interval 0.0178~0.0308, and the estimated exponent b was 2.917 with 95% confidence interval 2.731~2.945. Estimates for a and b with the random effects in intercept and coefficient from Region and Year, ranged from 0.013 to 0.023 and from 2.835 to 3.017, respectively. Both regions and years had effects on parameters a and b, while the effects from years were shown to be much larger than those from regions. Except for Coastal Waters of Northern Shandong, a decreased from north to south. Condition factors relative to reference years of 1960, 1986, 2005, 2007, 2008~2009 and 2010 revealed that the body shape of Yellow Croaker became thinner in recent years. Furthermore relative condition factors varied among months, years, regions and length. The values of a and relative condition factors decreased, when the environmental pollution became worse, therefore, length-weight relationships could be an indicator for the environment quality. Results from this study provided basic description of current condition of Yellow Croaker along the north coast of China.

Evaluation of removal of the size effect using data scaling and elliptic Fourier descriptors in otolith shape analysis, exemplified by the discrimination of two yellow croaker stocks along the Chinese coast

Removal of the length effect in otolith shape analysis for stock identification using length scaling is an important issue; however, few studies have attempted to investigate the effectiveness or weakness of this methodology in application. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether commonly used size scaling methods and normalized elliptic Fourier descriptors (NEFDs) could effectively remove the size effect of fish in stock discrimination. To achieve this goal, length groups from two known geographical stocks of yellow croaker, Larimichthys polyactis, along the Chinese coast (five groups from the Changjiang River estuary of the East China Sea and three groups from the Bohai Sea) were subjected to otolith shape analysis. The results indicated that the variation of otolith shape caused by intra-stock fish length might exceed that due to inter-stock geographical separation, even when otolith shape variables are standardized with length scaling methods. This variation could easily result in misleading stock discrimination through otolith shape analysis. Therefore, conclusions about fish stock structure should be carefully drawn from otolith shape analysis because the observed discrimination may primarily be due to length effects, rather than differences among stocks. The application of multiple methods, such as otoliths shape analysis combined with elemental fingering, tagging or genetic analysis, is recommended for sock identification.