New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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A genetic study of the origins and structuring of the skipjack tuna population exploited by the New Zealand fishery

BARRY J. RICHARDSON¹

GEORGE HABIB²

^1.Department of Population Biology Research School of Biological Sciences A.N.U. Canberra, Australia

²Fisheries Research Centre Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries P. O. Box 297 Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract An analysis of protein variation at three loci (transferrin, guanine deaminase, and an esterase) in sets of blood samples taken from single schools over four years off the coast of New Zealamd is reported. There were no significant variations in allele frequency between sample sets for transferrin. The esterase data were heterogeneous, showing significant within- and between-year variations in allele frequency. Esterase allele frequencies changed with the average size of fish in the school. There was no difference between the estimated esterase allele frequencies of eastern and western coast schools. In most cases the esterase and guanine deaminase allele frequencies observed were similar to those found for schools in tropical waters to the north of New Zealand. However, some schools had frequencies similar to those of schools from French Polynesia and others similar to those from schools from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The results obtained are considered in the light of various discrete stock models and an isolation-by-distance model of the Pacific skipjack tuna population.

Keywords skipjack tuna; Katsuwonus pelamis; breeding area; enzyme; genetic variation

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1987, Vol. 21: 109-116 0028-8330/87/2101-0109$2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1987 Received 16 March 1984, accepted 17 June 1986

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (662K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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