Mackerel egg predation by cannibalism during the spawning season

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.

Consuming one’s own viable offspring is common among species that share the same distribution area for all their different life stages. The objective of this paper is to describe the role of mackerel as prey and as predator in the Cantabrian Sea (ICES Division VIIIc) during its spawning season. Mackerel is classified as a serial spawner as the female spawn several times during spawning season. The southern component of northeast Atlantic mackerel stock spawns between March and April. The information used in this paper are: diet composition from stomach content analyses, stage-specific production values derived from pelagic trawl hauls and ichthyoplankton surveys conducted on cruises in March and April from 2000 to 2003 . Temperature of the water column and abundance of juvenile and adult mackerel at each sampled station were also collected. The analysis of all these data allowed us to evaluate temporal changes in the predation process and their possible causes. These results are also discussed under the perspective of cannibalism’s role in the estimated mackerel recruitment.