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Patch study of mortality, growth and feeding of the larvae of the southern gadoid Macruronus novaezelandiae

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Abstract

A discrete dense patch of eggs and larvae of hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiae) within the hoki spawning grounds off Westland, New Zealand, was sampled to examine prey selectivity by larvae and to obtain estimates of larval mortality and growth. The patch was tracked using a free-drifting drogue, and surveys of the horizontal distribution of larvae before and after the patch study indicated that the drogue had successfully followed the patch. Modal analysis of the size-frequency distributions of hoki larvae revealed up to six cohorts within the patch at any one sampling time, and a growth rate of 0.21 mm standard length per day. The daily mortality coefficient for larvae within the patch was 0.19, although this is considered to be an overestimate. Differences in the mean length between cohorts suggest that hoki have a synchronised, diel spawning periodicity, and results of a simple cellular design model revealed that ten continuous days of spawning were required to yield the observed size structure of the hoki larvae population within the patch. Diet analysis of larvae in the patch showed that copepods of the genus Calocalanus are actively selected, and are especially important in the diet of early-stage larvae. Based on aspects of larval diet, morphology, and rates of mortality and growth, it is hypothesised that hoki larvae are adapted to a low-food environment, and that predation is likely to be more important as a source of mortality than starvation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NIWA Marine, New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, Kilbirnie, P.O. Box 14-901, Wellington, New Zealand

    R. C. Murdoch & B. Quigley

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  1. R. C. Murdoch
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  2. B. Quigley
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Communicated by G. F. Humphrey, Sydney

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Murdoch, R.C., Quigley, B. Patch study of mortality, growth and feeding of the larvae of the southern gadoid Macruronus novaezelandiae . Marine Biology 121, 23–33 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00349470

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00349470

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