New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Commercial catch composition and reproductive biology of rig (Mustelus lenticulatus) from Pegasus Bay, Canterbury, New Zealand

BRENDON R. MASSEY¹*

MALCOLM P. FRANCIS²

¹Centre for Resource Management University of Canterbury Christchurch, New Zealand

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

Abstract The 1982/83 set-net rig (Mustelus lenticulatus Phillipps, 1932) catch from Pegasus Bay is described with respect to fish length, sex, and maturity. Of the estimated 30 000 rig caught in set nets from November 1982 to April 1983,56% were males. Males dominated catches in November and December 1982, whereas females dominated from January 1983 onwards.Eighty-fourpercentof males were mature compared with 30% of females. Overall, the set-net fishery was based mainly on mature males and immature females (48% and 31% of the total set-net catch, respectively). Male rig matured at about 89 cm total length (TL) and females matured at about 106 cm TL. Most females probably give birth in S eptember-October and ovulate a new set of eggs from October to December. Male and female embryos occurred in equal numbers.

Keywords Mustelus lenticulatus; Pegasus Bay; Lyttelton; catch composition; reproduction

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1989, Vol. 23: 113-120 0028-8330/89/2301-0113S2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1989 Received 31 September 1987; accepted 19 February 1988

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (665K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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