Logo image
Reproductive biology of Holothuria leucospilota in the Cook Islands and the implications of traditional fishing of gonads on the population
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Reproductive biology of Holothuria leucospilota in the Cook Islands and the implications of traditional fishing of gonads on the population

D.J. Drumm and N.R. Loneragan
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, Vol.39(1), pp.141-156
2005
url
Link to Published Version *Subscription may be requiredView

Abstract

This study describes the reproductive biology of Holothuria leucospilota in Rarotonga, Cook Islands and assesses the effect of traditional fishing on survival and reproduction. Monthly collections of H. leucospilota from January 1998 until March 1999 revealed that gametogenesis and spawning were synchronous between the sexes and spawning occurred annually during the summer months. Spawning during the first year had already started at the beginning of the study in January and lasted until April, whereas in the second year, spawning started in November and finished in February, possibly because of higher water temperatures in this year. Our data indicate that the incision of the body‐wall and gonad removal had no impact on the survival of H. leucospilota in cages. However, their body weight, general sheltering and feeding behaviours were affected by gonad removal. Although the body‐wall of fished animals healed within 7–14 days, the gonads had just started to regenerate after 41 days, suggesting that the spawning of fished individuals would have been greatly delayed, possibly until the following year.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#14 Life Below Water

Source: InCites

Metrics

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.2 Marine Biology
3.2.1339 Marine Invertebrate Development
Web Of Science research areas
Fisheries
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Oceanography
ESI research areas
Plant & Animal Science
Logo image