0000000000226568
AUTHOR
Ana E. Ahuir-baraja
Fish Health and Fisheries, Implications for Stock Assessment and Management: The Mediterranean Example
Although fish health may influence key population-level processes, particularly those dealing with natural mortality, reproduction and growth, which in turn affect stock productivity, there has been little emphasis on the links between fish health and management of marine fisheries. This paper addresses this gap and illustrates how knowledge of fish health provides insight to marine fisheries biologists, stock assessment modellers and managers. The study demonstrates ways in which the consideration of condition (energy reserves) indicators and parasitism adds to improved stock assessment and fisheries management, also in situations of data shortage when standard methods cannot be applied, a…
Molecular and Morphological Differentiation of Two Similar Species of Accacoeliidae (Digenea):Accacladocoelium macrocotyleandA. nigroflavumfrom Sunfish,Mola mola
In a study of 106 sunfish, Mola mola (L.), from Mediterranean waters, 2,731 worms, belonging to 2 congeneric species of accacoeliids, Accacladocoelium macrocotyle (Diesing, 1858) Robinson, 1934 and Accacladocoelium nigroflavum (Rudolphi, 1819) Robinson, 1934 , were collected from the digestive system. It is often difficult to differentiate between these 2 species as they are sympatric and very similar; in fact, according to previous descriptions, the extent of the vitellarium is the only interspecific difference, described as extending posteriorly to the ovary in A. macrocotyle and as anterior to the anterior testis in A. nigroflavum. However, this diagnostic trait is not always valid; more…
A new species of Empruthotrema (Monogenea: Monocotylidae) from Pteromylaeus bovinus (Myliobatidae) from the Western Mediterranean.
Empruthotrema chisholmae n. sp. is described from specimens recovered from a bull ray Pteromylaeus bovinus (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817) at the Oceanogràfic Aquarium in Valencia, Spain. The bull ray was caught in the Spanish Mediterranean (Puerto de Mazarrón, Murcia). The new species resembles 4 others of the same genus ( Empruthotrema dasyatidis Whittington and Kearn, 1992, Empruthotrema kearni Whittington, 1990, Empruthotrema stenophallus Chisholm and Whittington, 2005, and Empruthotrema tasmaniensis Chisholm and Whittington, 1999) in having a haptor with 13 marginal loculi, the posteriormost loculus single and medial. The new species can be distinguished from these other species of the …
Taxonomic status and epidemiology of the mesoparasitic copepod Pennella balaenoptera in cetaceans from the western Mediterranean.
Pennella balaenoptera is a mesoparasitic copepod that has been reported in at least 17 cetacean species. Subtle morphological differences in the first antennae of adult females have been used to discriminate this species from P. filosa, a species infecting fishes. Other morphological traits are unreliable because of their high plasticity, and no molecular data are available to confirm the taxonomic status of P. balaenoptera as an independent species. We found no consistent morphological differences of the first antennae between P. balaenoptera and P. filosa collected from cetaceans and fish in the western Mediterranean. Molecular data on the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I failed…
Accacoelium contortum (Trematoda: Accacoeliidae) a trematode living as a monogenean: morphological and pathological implications
Background Accacoelium contortum (Rudolphi, 1819) Monticelli, 1893 is a frequent but poorly known trematode found on gills, pharynx and digestive tract of the ocean sunfish Mola mola (L.). Although the morphology of A. contortum agrees with that of a typical endoparasitic trematode, with two relatively small suckers and no large holdfasts, this parasite is normally ectoparasitic. The main objective of this paper is to explore this peculiar host-parasite relationship. Methods A total of 106 ocean sunfish were examined for the presence of A. contortum. The oropharyngeal chamber (gills and pharynx) and the digestive tract were analysed. As the previous descriptions of this species seem to be b…