. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1986 Notes 557. Figure 1. Length frequency distribution for the 96 Atlantic Wolffish collected during the present study. Numbers above the histograms are the ages for the particular size class [from Beese and Kandler (1969)]. have never been recorded. Considerable searching under rocks, under scallop shells, and among algae has been conducted on bottom ranging from mud to mainly bedrock, but no small wolffish were observed. It is therefore evident that juvenile wolffish do not occur inshore in shallow water (< 30 m) around Newfoundland. There are two possibl
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1986 Notes 557. Figure 1. Length frequency distribution for the 96 Atlantic Wolffish collected during the present study. Numbers above the histograms are the ages for the particular size class [from Beese and Kandler (1969)]. have never been recorded. Considerable searching under rocks, under scallop shells, and among algae has been conducted on bottom ranging from mud to mainly bedrock, but no small wolffish were observed. It is therefore evident that juvenile wolffish do not occur inshore in shallow water (< 30 m) around Newfoundland. There are two possible explanations for the observed absence of juvenile fish in shallow water. First, little or no recruitment may have occurred during the last ten years. Second, juveniles may occupy habitats offshore or in deeper water until they attain sexual maturity. The smallest size class collected during the present study was 50 cm. Beese and Kandler (1969) reported that female A. lupus mature at 31-46 cm, and males at 42-69 cm. This is close to the size range at which they begin to appear inshore (Figure 1). Based on dentition, Barsukov (1959) concluded that yearlings (7 cm) feed on molluscs and other hard organisms. We can therefore rule out the possibility of an extended pelagic period for juveniles, such as occurs {oxAnarhichas denticulatus (Grigor'ev 1983) and the Pacific species Anarrhichthys ocellatus (Miller 1982; Wakefield 1980). The latter species does not develop adult dentition until 50-60 cm in length (Kanazawa 1952). Juvenile wolffish have been reported at other locations, but in many cases the habitat or depth range sampled was not given. Barsukov (1959) stated that young wolffish are particularly confined to stony bottom, but gave no localities, depths or specific data. Beese and Kandler (1969) reported that 24 of 124 specimens taken off Greenland were less than 30 cm in length. Smidt (1981) reported a length frequency distribution for A. lupus from trawl and longline catch
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