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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 59(1)

A simple, cost-effective, morphometric marker for characterising abalone populations at multiple spatial scales

Thor M. Saunders A C D , Stephen Mayfield A and Andrew A. Hogg B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A SARDI Aquatic Sciences, PO Box 120, Henley Beach, SA 5022, Australia.

B SARDI Aquatic Sciences, 9 Krummel St, Mt Gambier, SA 5290, Australia.

C Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, DP418, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

D Corresponding author. Email: saunders.thor@saugov.sa.gov.au

Marine and Freshwater Research 59(1) 32-40 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF07150
Submitted: 17 August 2007  Accepted: 22 November 2007   Published: 25 January 2008

Abstract

The ability to identify and separately manage component populations is becoming increasingly important in guarding against overexploitation of many marine species. Blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) form isolated populations with variable life history characteristics as a result of the heterogenous areas they inhabit. Many of these populations are ‘stunted’, reaching a lower maximum size compared with those in adjacent areas. We obtained a range of morphological measurements from samples of ‘stunted’ and ‘non-stunted’ H. rubra collected from sites spread across broad (tens of kilometres) and fine (hundreds of metres) spatial scales in southern South Australia. The ratio between shell length and shell height showed clear and significant differences among samples from ‘stunted’ and ‘non-stunted’ sites. The morphometric collections from the sub-sites suggested that ‘stunted’ populations existed at smaller spatial scales (up to 400 m) compared with that for ‘non-stunted’ populations (at least 1000 m). The ‘morphometric marker’ developed in the present study has the potential to be used as a tool to identify individual populations rapidly and cost-effectively that can then be managed separately. Our approach is applicable to other species of abalone as well as other sedentary invertebrates with limited larval dispersal.

Additional keywords: fisheries management, Haliotis rubra, population structure.


Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Associate Professor Sean Connell, Dr Tim Ward, Cameron Dixon, Dr Jeremy Prince and Dr Reyn Naylor for commenting on earlier versions of the manuscript. We would also like to thank Neal Chambers, Steve Coe, Peter Hawthorne, Matthew Hoare and Alan Jones for assistance with diving. This research was part of a Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) grant (Project Number 2004/019, Principal Investigator Stephen Mayfield) awarded to SARDI.


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