Links between climate variation and year class strength of New Zealand hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiae): An update

Hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiae Hector) year class strength (YCS) varies substantially from year to year. We examined associations between YCS and climate variables including the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), satellite sea surface temperatures (SSTs), synoptic weather patterns, wind speeds, and the depth of the west coast, South Island, New Zealand, mixed layer. We evaluated the predictions of a model developed 2 years ago to predict YCS of the western and eastern New Zealand hoki stocks from similar climate variables. New predictive models were developed using updated data. Strong year classes of the western hoki stock were associated with cooler SSTs, a negative SOI, and westerly or south‐westerly flow along the west coast of the South Island. We accordingly predict a moderately strong 1997 year class and weak 1998 and 1999 year classes for the western stock of hoki. The current model cannot predict eastern stock year class strengths with confidence.     

The Effect of an Infaunal Suspension Feeding Bivalve Mercenaria mercenaria (L.) on Benthic Recruitment*

Abstract. Animal-animal interactions are recognized as critical in benthic invertebrate recruitment. The hypothesis tested was that benthic recruitment is more successful in low densities of infaunal suspension feeders than in high densities. Densities of young hard clams Mercenaria mercenaria (L.) ranging from 82.5 to 330m^-2 were placed in defaunated boxes of sand. The mean number of species, mean number of individuals, mean wet weight biomass, mean species richness and mean dominance index per sample were calculated per density of hard clams from May to October. The experiment did not support the hypothesis. It was concluded that feeding behaviour of dense populations of M. mercenaria did not preclude successful recruitment of other benthic species.     

A potential source of recruitment of Acartia pacifica nauplii: viable benthic resting eggs

1 Introduction M any estuarine and coastal copepods that havepreviously been classified as holoplankton m ightbestbe described as adultm eroplankton since they actuallyspend a portion oftheir life cycle in the seabed as rest-ing eggs [review ed by G rice and M arcus (1981) andM arcus (1996)]. R esting eggs can be extrem ely abun-dant (106 m ) in bays and estuaries especially w here -2w aterdepths are less than 20 m (M arcus,1989).Theyare likely to profoundly influence the dynam ics ofpel…     

Fish trapping experiments in Northern New Zealand waters

Fish trapping experiments were carried out during 1973–75 along the north‐east coast of the North Island. The most effective trap type was the Z‐trap. Two sizes of Z‐trap were tested. Better results were obtained with the larger ones, which had an overall mean catch rate of 8.4 fish/trap day. The catch rate varied widely between areas, bottom types, and seasons. Best results were obtained in summer in depths greater than 20 m.