Using otolith shape analysis to distinguish eastern Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean stocks of king mackerel

摘要

In winter, king mackerel from eastern Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic stocks mix off southeast Florida. where they support a large fishery. Neither tagging nor genetics has yielded a way to estimate mixing rates accurately. For management purposes, and based on tagging data from the mid-1970s, all of these fish have been considered to be from the Gulf stock. Our objectives were to examine the feasibility of using otolith shape data to distinguish the two stocks, and if the method proved feasible, to use it to estimate stock composition in the winter mixed-stock fishery.