Características poblacionales de la anchoíta (Engraulis anchoita)del Mar Argentino. Parte I. El largo medio al primer año de vida, crecimiento y mortalidad

Abstract

A total of 7263 otoliths were collected from anchovy samples taken during two pelagic cruises which were carried out in the Spring of 1978. An statistical analysis of back calculated length distributions of one-year-old fish (L1)was made. The L1 mean values taken by geographical latitude form a cline, with higher values in the northern samples, and decreasing Southwards. Within this latitudinal gradient two main anchovy populations can be identified, one in the region of Buenos Aires Province and the other in Patagonian waters. The L1 of the females is significatively larger than that of the males for the former population, whereas in the Patagonian area differences between sexes are not significant. The parameters of the von Bertalanffy Growth curves, as well as the instantaneous total mortality rates (Z), were estimated for both populations by each cruise.