Browsing by Author "Carmo Nunes Silva,"
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ESCALA DE MATURAÇÃO MACROSCÓPICA E MICROSCÓPICA DO VERDINHO (Micromesistius poutassou)Publication . Gonçalves, Patrícia; Costa, Ana M.; Ferreira, Ana Luísa; Resende, Adelaide; Carmo Nunes Silva,; Abreu, Paula; Pechirra, Pedro; Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, I.P.Blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) is a mesopelagic teleost, of the gadidae family and widely distributed along the Atlantic North and Mediterranean. On the Portuguese coast, the main spawning season for this species occurs between January and March. At IPMA, the biological sampling of blue whiting is carried out regularly, in samples from discards collected onboard commercial vessels, fishing landings (Peniche, Matosinhos e Vila Real de St. António) and from scientific research surveys. Regarding the reproductive cycle, the identification of the maturity stages is made macroscopically during biological sampling. The maturity stage key currently in use at IPMA and applied to blue whiting is of the one suggested by Godinho et al. (2001), which was developed only based on macroscopic observations and descriptions, without microscopic validation. This study aims to microscopically describe the morphology of the gonads throughout the reproductive cycle for blue whiting, to validate and intercalibrate the macroscopic identifications based on histology and also to propose a new macroscopic maturity stage key taking into account the microscopic and macroscopic characteristics of the different stages from the sexual development cycle. Keywords: Blue whiting, Micromesistius poutassou, histology, macroscopic identification, microscopic maturity scale, macroscopic maturity scale.