Determination of moulting events in rock lobsters from pleopod clipping

Gardner, Caleb, and Mills, David J. (2013) Determination of moulting events in rock lobsters from pleopod clipping. PLoS ONE, 8 (8). e74146. pp. 1-9.

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Abstract

Rock lobster growth is routinely measured for research to optimise management measures such as size limits and quotas. The process of estimating growth is complicated in crustaceans as growth only occurs when the animal moults. As data are typically collected by tag-recapture methods, the timing of moulting events can bias results. For example, if annual moulting events take place within a very short time-at-large after tagging, or if time-at-large is long and no moulting occurs. Classifying data into cases where moulting has / has not occurred during time-at-large can be required and can generally be determined by change in size between release and recapture. However, in old or slow growth individuals the moult increment can be too small to provide surety that moulting has occurred. A method that has been used since the 1970's to determine moulting in rock lobsters involves clipping the distal portion of a pleopod so that any regeneration observed at recapture can be used as evidence of a moult. We examined the use of this method in both tank and long-duration field trials within a marine protected area, which provided access to large animals with smaller growth increments. Our results emphasised that determination of moulting by change in size was unreliable with larger lobsters and that pleopod clipping can assist in identifying moulting events. However, regeneration was an unreliable measure of moulting if clipping occurred less than three months before the moult.

Item ID: 29916
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1932-6203
Additional Information:

©2013 Gardner, Mills. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funders: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC)
Projects and Grants: FRDC Project 2002/238
Date Deposited: 23 Oct 2013 05:26
FoR Codes: 06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0602 Ecology > 060205 Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl Marine Ichthyology) @ 70%
06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0602 Ecology > 060207 Population Ecology @ 30%
SEO Codes: 83 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 8302 Fisheries - Wild Caught > 830206 Wild Caught Rock Lobster @ 100%
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