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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Fecundity and sex steroid profile in boarfish Capros aper

Vera Sequeira https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7173-4982 A B D , Elsa Couto C , Ana Neves https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3885-2738 A , Ana Rita Vieira https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5640-7999 A B , Adelino Canario https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6244-6468 C and Leonel Serrano Gordo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9144-6061 A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, PT-1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.

B Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, PT-1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.

C Centre for Marine Sciences (CCMAR), University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, PT-8005-139 Faro, Portugal.

D Corresponding author. Email: vlsequeira@fc.ul.pt

Marine and Freshwater Research 72(1) 140-148 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF20045
Submitted: 11 February 2020  Accepted: 17 March 2020   Published: 21 April 2020

Abstract

The boarfish Capros aper is one of the most commonly discarded non-commercial species in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Subdivision VIII in the Atlantic. An increasing interest in this fishery and an incomplete knowledge on the status of the stock justified the present investigation focused on the determination of fecundity type and its estimation, supported by sex steroid profiles for 17β-oestradiol (E2), 11-ketotestosterone and 17,20β-dihydroxypregn-4-en-3-one (17,20β-P). C. aper was found to have indeterminate fecundity with a mean relative batch fecundity during the spawning peak of 50 oocytes g−1 eviscerated weight (WE) and a mean relative annual fecundity of 4020 oocytes g−1 WE. E2 variations throughout the year indicated the existence of at least two important spawning events, one in winter (January–February) and the other in summer (June–August), with concentrations in females increasing from those with growing oocytes in the developing phase to those in the spawning capable phase. Higher E2 concentrations were also found from 2000 to 2400 hours and from 0800 to 1200 hours suggesting more intense vitellogenesis activity during the night and in the morning, in contrast to 17,20β-P concentrations, which were higher between 1200 and 2000 hours, suggesting a more intense spawning activity during this period.

Additional keywords: reproductive strategy, indeterminate fecundity, western Atlantic.


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