Bombay-Duck Harpadon Microchir in the Coastal Waters Off Southwestern Taiwan
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
658 Journal of Marine Science and Technology, Vol. 22, No. 5, pp. 658-665 (2014) DOI: 10.6119/JMST-013-1211-1 REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF THE BOMBAY-DUCK HARPADON MICROCHIR IN THE COASTAL WATERS OFF SOUTHWESTERN TAIWAN Yih-Yia Liao1, Shun-Ren Luo1, and Kwang-Ming Liu2 Key words: reproductive biology, Harpadon microchir, spawning species can be found in the waters surrounding Taiwan except season, fecundity. the north [19]. This demersal species usually inhabits near the continental shelf or in the mud-sand sediment. It mainly preys on small fish and crustaceans [18]. In addition, this species is ABSTRACT an important prey for the threadfin bream Nemipterus spp. [15] The bombay-duck, Harpadon microchir, is one of the im- and its trophic level is 4.3 in the waters off southwestern portant bycatch species of the trawl fishery in the waters off Taiwan [Chen et al. unpubl.]. This species can be caught as southwestern Taiwan. However, its biological information, byctch all year round mainly by trawl fishery in the south- especially reproductive biology, is still lacking. In this study, the western Taiwan. It used to have very little economic value reproductive biology of the bombay-duck was described based (< US$0.5 kg-1), but its unit price increased to about US$4 kg-1 on 1,697 specimens (1,066 females and 631 males) caught by during our survey period from 2007 to 2008. Thus, the bom- bottom trawl fishery in the waters off southwestern Taiwan from bay-duck made considerable contribution in economics to the October 2007 to December 2008. The spawning season of this bottom trawl fishery in recent years [Chen et al. unpubl.]. species was estimated to be in May and from August to De- Biological information of the Genus Harpadon has been cember with a peak in November based on the macroscopic well documented. Several aspects of H. nehereus have been appearance, gonadosomatic index, histological examination, and described e.g., age and growth [9], food and feeding habits [15, group maturity rate. Oocyte development and ovarian devel- 16], and population dynamics [3]. Liao’s (unpubl.) descrip- opment were categorized into nine stages and four stages, re- tion on age and growth of H. microchir in the waters off spectively based on histological or macroscopic examination. southwestern Taiwan by using otolith is the only study for this Mean fecundity and mean batch fecundity were estimated to be species. However, the reproductive biology information of H. 446,373 ± 174,858 and 61,680 ± 60,279, respectively. The re- microchir is still lacking. lationship between fecundity (F) and body weight (BW) was This species is an important element in the marine ecosys- estimated as: F = −46.580 + 9.69 × 103BW(r2 = 0.587; n = 50). tem in the southwestern Taiwan waters [Chen et al. unpubl.]. The sex ratio (female/total), 0.63, was significantly different However, the life history information which is essential for from 0.5. The sizes at 50% maturity were estimated to be 39.9 fisheries management and conservation of this species is and 19.8 cm FL for females and males, respectively. lacking. Thus, the objective of this study is to provide the first information on reproductive biology including oocyte and ovarian development, spawning season, sex ratio, gonadoso- I. INTRODUCTION matic index (GSI), hepatosomatic index (HSI), condition The bombay-duck, Harpadon microchir Günther, 1878, a factor (CF), size at maturity, fecundity (F) and batch fecundity demersal species, is widely distributed in the northwestern (BF) of bombay-duck in the southwestern Taiwan waters. It is Pacific Ocean, including Taiwan and Japan waters [18]. This anticipated that the results derived from this study can be used to estimate population growth rate with demographic analysis and can be used as input parameters for stock assessment and Paper submitted 02/20/13; revised 07/08/13; accepted 12/11/13. Author for management of this stock. correspondence: Kwang-Ming Liu (e-mail: [email protected]). 1 Department of Fishery Production and Management, National Kaohsiung Marine University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, R.O.C. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS 2 Institute of Marine Affairs and Resource Management, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C. The specimens, caught by a commercial trawl vessel (38 Y.-Y. Liao et al.: Reproductive Biology of Bombay-Duck 659 Table 1. Sample size and size range of the specimens of Harpadon microchir. Female Male Month/year Total N Range of FL (cm) Range of BW (g) N Range of FL (cm) Range of BW (g) Oct. 2007 28 19.3-28.5 27.22-84.04 35 15.4-29.2 7.81-93.36 63 Nov. 2007 28 19.8-50.5 29.71-635.00 24 19.9-30.0 29.37-124.27 52 Dec. 2007 39 16.3-49.5 18.77-600.00 19 10.2-28.2 2.81-106.96 58 Jan. 2008 26 15.2-29.5 11.64-102.05 32 14.4-29.1 9.32-115.13 58 Feb. 2008 37 15.5-29.3 11.29-94.01 18 17.1-26.0 17.74-71.94 55 Mar. 2008 28 11.4-27.2 7.40-84.14 28 11.4-28.5 4.45-107.53 56 Apr. 2008 28 16.2-29.9 12.17-102.54 27 13.1-26.2 7.10-65.35 55 May 2008 38 13.9-47.3 9.32-170.40 24 11.9-30.4 5.16-111.62 47 Jun. 2008 29 11.8-34.7 4.87-188.88 22 10.2-29.2 3.58-110.83 51 Jul. 2008 32 11.3-28.0 2.62-75.07 23 12.9-26.6 3.23-69.70 55 Aug. 2008 171 15.7-50.9 9.17-580.00 137 6.4-32.7 16.87-157.61 308 Sep. 2008 132 18.0-39.7 17.91-275.00 52 6.3-36.6 13.60-205.00 184 Oct. 2008 107 15.8-44.3 10.37-420.00 91 21.2-33.7 30.72-152.92 191 Nov. 2008 187 7.2-57.7 0.70-912.00 28 21.0-32.5 37.07-147.77 154 Dec. 2008 156 17.5-48.2 16.90-146.59 71 19.7-35.3 29.83-215.00 225 Total 1,067 7.2-57.7 0.7-912.00 631 6.3-36.6 2.81-215.00 1,697 23° N were macroscopically examined to determine the mature condition prior to preservation in 10% formalin until further Erbjen River T Baishalun A 55° I processing. For some small juvenile individuals, which sex Singdagang W A cannot be identified by naked eyes, a microscopic observation N 50° Mituo (Nikon YS100) coupled with histological examination were Kezailiao 45° used to facilitate the sex identification. Histological proce- dures in this study follow the method of Lee et al. [12]. After Tsoying 40° cleaning, dehydration, infiltration, and paraffin embedding, 22° Mt. Wanshou N 200 m µ Kaohsiung the tissue was sectioned to 3-10 m in thickness and stained 35° with hematoxylin and eosin. A total of 212 gonads (157 fe- Cianjhen Dalinpu males, 55 males) were processed for further examination on Kaoping River 30° Tungkang River gonadal development. Tungkang Linpien Linpien River Three ovaries taken from three different individuals (49.5, 25° 49.5, 42.7 cm FL) with different gonadosomatic index (GSI) were selected to examine the homogeneity of oocyte diameter Fanliao 20° Liuchiu Yu and number of oocytes. Each ovary was divided into six por- Fanshan 15° tions (anterior, middle, and posterior portions of each lobe), Fenkang and an amount of 0.01 g of ovary was taken from each portion. Operating area 10° 22° These ovary samples were placed on glass slides with grid N scale and all oocytes were measured and counted with a pro- 120"10' E 20' 25' 30 35' 120"40' E jector (25X) (Nikon V-12B). A two-way analysis of variance 22° (ANOVA) indicated that the mean number of oocytes is not Fig. 1. Sampling area of Harpadon microchir in the waters off south- significantly different among different portions of an individual western Taiwan. (n = 18, F = 1.17, p > 0.05), but significant difference was found among different individuals (n = 18, F = 102.9, p < 0.05). tons, 350 HP) with mesh size of 2 cm in the depth of 50-250 m In addition, the frequency distribution of oocyte diameter in the waters off southwestern Taiwan (Fig. 1), were collected showed similar trend among different portions of an individual randomly in size from the catch on a monthly basis from Oc- but obviously different patterns were found among different tober 2007 to December 2008 (Table 1). Measurements of individuals. These results indicated that oocyte diameter and specimens were taken on the standard length (SL), fork length number of ooctyes were homogeneous among portions for an (FL), total length (TL) to the nearest 0.1 cm, body weight individual. For consistency, the top portion of the right lobe of (BW), and gonad weight to the nearest 0.01 g. The gonads each ovary was taken for analysis in this study. 660 Journal of Marine Science and Technology, Vol. 22, No. 5 (2014) Table 2. Monthly sex ratio of the specimens of Harpadon 100 95 microchir in this study. 90 100 100 100 100 80 72 Number of 67 Month Total Sex ratio χ2 70 60 Female Male 60 50 51 Oct. 2007 28 35 63 0.44 0.78 50 Nov.