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Predation on Eggs of the Thorny Skate
Author(s) -
Cox David L.,
Walker Paddy,
Koob Thomas J.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1999)128<0380:poeott>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - predation , skate , demersal zone , biology , radiata , fishery , hatching , predator , ecology , fish <actinopterygii> , vigna , agronomy
Of 217 egg capsules of thorny skate Raja radiata trawled from the Nordliche Slickbank off the Danish coast June 1–7, 1994, 39 capsules (18%) had perforations of apparent biological origin. This proportion was an upper limit of possible predation frequencies; the lower limit of 4–6% was based on capsules with both boreholes and closed hatching seams. Identification of the egg predator(s) was not possible, though the borehole morphologies were consistent with those of naticid and muricid gastropods. Our estimate of predation frequency is consistent with assessments of mortality in demersal teleost eggs and previous estimates of predation on elasmobranch eggs, which suggests that egg predation is a major factor influencing the abundances of skate populations.