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Marine and Freshwater Research Marine and Freshwater Research Society
Advances in the aquatic sciences
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Demographic variation in the New Zealand abalone Haliotis iris

J. R. Naylor A C , N. L. Andrew A B and S. W. Kim A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A NIWA, PO Box 14901, Kilbirnie, Wellington, New Zealand.

B Present address: The WorldFish Center, PO Box 500 GPO, 10670 Penang, Malaysia.

C Corresponding author. Email: r.naylor@niwa.co.nz

Marine and Freshwater Research 57(2) 215-224 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF05150
Submitted: 5 August 2005  Accepted: 17 January 2006   Published: 28 February 2006

Abstract

Growth data for the New Zealand abalone Haliotis iris were collected from 30 sites around the New Zealand coast by tag–recapture methods. Most data were collected to provide input into abalone stock assessments within discrete management areas, but had not been examined to determine the nature or extent of any large-scale patterns that might be useful to fishery managers. Sites spanned more than 10° of latitude and were subject to a large range of wave energies and temperatures. Mean monthly sea surface temperature (SST) and wave energy were estimated for each site and a generalised linear regression model was used to examine the relationship between variables. Size-at-maturity was also examined at ten sites. Initial length of abalone explained 35% of the variation in incremental growth, and a further 19% was explained by maximum SST, which also explained 60% of the variation in asymptotic length. Fastest growth was generally in areas with lower mean monthly maximum SST, and sites with the slowest growth had the highest mean monthly maximum SST. Size-at-maturity decreased with increasing temperature. The implications of these broad patterns upon abalone fisheries management strategies are discussed.

Extra keywords: growth, maturity.


Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Steve Mercer, Pete Notman, Owen Anderson, and Chazz Marriott for help with the tagging and recapture of abalone, and to Bob Street and John Pirker for providing growth increment data from additional sites. We are also grateful to Dr Michael Uddstrom for supplying SST data that are provided via FRST Remote Sensing of Fisheries Contract C01X0214, and to Dr Richard Gorman for providing us with wave height statistics for each site. We also thank Paul Breen, Scoresby Shepherd and an anonymous referee for providing constructive comments on the manuscript.


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