Abstract

Discrimination of stocks, populations and cohorts are some of the most important issues in fisheries management. The sagitta shape analysis is an efficient tool to distinguish between species, populations or stocks components based on phenotypic characteristics, by high morphological variability. The otolith shape is markedly species specific and provides an assessment based on phenotypic characteristics mainly regulated genetically. Nevertheless there is a strong related otolith shape variability due to sex, age, year class and diet, as well as environmental conditions such as depth, temperature and substrate type. Therefore, variations in otolith shapes could be related to population differences and may be used in stock-discrimination and species ID studies. Our study assesses the use of the otolith shape analyses to explore possible inter and intra differences between L. campechanus in the Gulf of Mexico and L. purpureus in Eastern Venezuela, taking into account factors such as species, fishing areas, sex and group age.

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