Female Reproductive Strategies of Marine Fish Species of the North Atlantic

Abstract

This contribution describes and identifies the most common reproductive strategies of a large number of commercially important fish species of the North Atlantic with regard to oocyte development, ovary organization, recruitment of oocytes and spawning pattern.Groupsynchronous ovary organization, determinate fecundity and batch spawning was the most common suite of associated reproductive traits observed among North Atlantic fishes (e.g., gadoids, pleuronectoids).Another common type of female reproductive strategy among these species was synchronous, determinate and total spawning which occurred in a number of semelparous (eels, Anguilla sp., capelin, Mallotus villosus) and iteroparous species (e.g., redfishes, Sebastes sp.,