Search results for "Herring"

Plastic ingestion by pelagic and demersal fish from the North Sea and Baltic Sea

2015

Plastic ingestion by marine biota has been reported for a variety of different taxa. In this study, we investigated 290 gastrointestinal tracts of demersal (cod, dab and flounder) and pelagic fish species (herring and mackerel) from the North and Baltic Sea for the occurrence of plastic ingestion. In 5.5% of all investigated fishes, plastic particles were detected, with 74% of all particles being in the microplastic (<5mm) size range. The polymer types of all found particles were analysed by means of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Almost 40% of the particles consisted of polyethylene (PE). In 3.4% of the demersal and 10.7% of the pelagic individuals, plastic ingestion was …

Oogenesis and reproductive investment of Atlantic herring are functions of not only present but long-ago environmental influences as well

2017

Following general life history theory, immediate reproductive investment (egg mass × fecundity/body mass) in oviparous teleosts is a consequence of both present and past environmental influences. This clarification questions the frequent use of season-independent (general) fecundity formulas in marine fish recruitment studies based on body metrics only. Here we test the underlying assumption of no lag effect on gametogenesis in the planktivorous, determinate-fecundity Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) displaying large plasticity in egg mass and fecundity, examining Norwegian summer–autumn spawning herring (NASH), North Sea autumn-spawning herring (NSAH), and Norwegian spring-spawning herri…

Reconstruction of Atlantic herring ( Clupea harengus ) recruitment in the North Sea for the past 455 years based on the δ 13 C from annual shell incr…

2019

Understanding the recruitment variability of the Atlantic herring North Sea stock remains a key objective of stock assessment and management. Although many efforts have been undertaken linking climatic and stock dynamic factors to herring recruitment, no major attempt has been made to estimate recruitment levels before the 20th century. Here, we present a novel annually resolved, absolutely dated herring recruitment reconstruction, derived from stable carbon isotope geochemistry (δ¹³C), from ocean quahog shells from the Fladen Ground (northern North Sea). Our age model is based on a growth increment chronology obtained from fourteen shells. Ten of these were micromilled at annual resolution…

Eight decades of adaptive changes in herring reproductive investment: the joint effect of environment and exploitation

2021

Abstract Reproductive investment is a central trait for population dynamics and productivity. Fishing and environmental variations are major drivers affecting population structure, dynamics, and adaptation of life-history and behavioural traits. However, those factors are often considered independently, and few studies take into account their joint effect. In this study, we investigate the contribution of environment, fishing pressure, and intra-specific competition to variation in the reproductive investment of the Norwegian spring-spawning herring (Clupea harengus), a stock that has been fished for centuries, and monitored for decades. Reproductive investment and post-spawning weight were…

Swimbladder filling in herring larvae: effects of food oil on the water surface

2020

There has been a recent interest in exploring the possibility of oil and gas production in the Lofoten-Vesterålen area along the Norwegian coast. Since this is an important drift area for offspring of several important commercial fish species, such an activity could potentially have adverse effects on fish early life survival. A potential surface oil spill could coincide in time with swimbladder filling in herring larvae originating from major spawning grounds in Møre, upstream of Lofoten-Vesterålen. A laboratory experiment was carried out to determine possible effects on growth and survival of herring larvae by adding an oil slick to the water surface. The presence of food oil on the water…

2019

The growing grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) population in the Baltic Sea has created conflicts with local fisheries, comparable to similar emerging problems worldwide. Adequate information on the foraging habits is a requirement for responsible management of the seal population. We investigated the applicability of available dietary assessment methods by comparing morphological analysis and DNA metabarcoding of gut contents (short-term diet; n = 129/125 seals, respectively), and tissue chemical markers i.e. fatty acid (FA) profiles of blubber and stable isotopes (SIs) of liver and muscle (mid- or long-term diet; n = 108 seals for the FA and SI markers). The methods provided complementary inf…

Detection of Allee effects in marine fishes: analytical biases generated by data availability and model selection

2017

The demographic Allee effect, or depensation, implies positive association between per capita population growth rate and population size at low abundances, thereby lowering growth ability of sparse populations. This can have far-reaching consequences on population recovery ability and colonization success. In the context of marine fishes, there is a widespread perception that Allee effects are rare or non-existent. However, studies that have failed to detect Allee effects in marine fishes have suffered from several fundamental methodological and data limitations. In the present study, we challenge the prevailing perception about the rarity of Allee effects by analysing nine populations of …

Changes in crustacean mesozooplankton and some environmental parameters in the Archipelago Sea (Northern Baltic) in 1976-1984

1990

Abstract The abundance of crustacean mesozooplankton was monitored by monthly sampling in the Archipelago Sea (Northern Baltic) during the years 1976-1984. Changes in the abundance of crustacean mesozooplankton species are compared with changes in water temperature, nutrient levels, chlorophyll-a, salinity and population densities of the Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras L.). There was a rise of water temperature during the study period (about laC on average). The chlorophyll values were increasing, as were the nutrient levels in winter. Salinity was decreasing (on average 0.5‰ S). The biomass and abundance ofplanktivorous Baltic herring were increasing by about 30 and 50 per cent, re…

Small pelagic fish in the new millennium: A bottom-up view of global research effort

2021

The present review is an outcome of discussions at the ICES-PICES Symposium on Drivers of Dynamics of Small Pelagic Fish convened in Victoria, B.C., Canada in spring 2017.-- This review is a first contribution of a new international Working Group on Small Pelagic Fish started jointly by ICES (WGSPF) and PICES (WG43) to continue world-wide collaboration to advance knowledge on the drivers of populations of SPF.

2021

In fish, the lipid resources of the female form a link between the environment and progeny, contributing to the contents of the egg yolk. Variation of the environmental conditions is therefore expected to affect the egg quality via maternal pathways, reflecting the female’s response to the environmental factors before spawning. We investigated the content of lipids and thyroid hormones in the ovary and eggs of the Baltic herring during 1988–2019, when salinity of the Baltic Sea first declined and then stabilized to a lower level, and winters varied between severe and mild. The total lipid resources of spawning females decreased by 40–50% during the study, and the ovarian lipid concentration…