Trawl selectivity-induced evolution effects on age structure and size-at-age of largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus) Linnaeus, 1758 in the East China Sea, China

Authored by P Sun, Z -L Liang, Y Yu, Y -L Tang, F -F Zhao, L -Y Huang

Date Published: 2015

DOI: 10.1111/jai.12774

Sponsors: Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province of China Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Increasing evidence has demonstrated that the life history traits of fishes have changed in many exploited populations, caused principally by intense fishing mortality and size-selectivity of the fishing gear. Broad and intensive trawl fishing over an extended period has the enormous potential to change the biological characters of exploited fish populations. An individual-based model was developed to explore the interactions between trawl fishing and evolutionary changes in length-at-age and age structure of an exploited fish population. A perennial fish population was simulated with a multiple age structure in the model to examine the effects of long-term trawl fishing on hairtail, Trichiurus lepturus, in the East China Sea. The results revealed that distribution of the body length-at-age and the age structure of the fish population were irreversibly changed under long-term trawl fishing. The simulated results confirm that the length-at-age is increasing shorter, the younger individuals dominate, the influence of trawl selectivity on the biological traits of the fish population is highly significant, and that these changes have potentially evolutionary consequences on the fish body length-at-age.

Tags

fisheries Science Populations Consequences Recovery Life-history evolution Fish stocks Time scales Pressures Harvest