Biologia reprodutiva do agulhão negro (Makaira nigricans Lacépède, 1803), no Atlântico Oeste Tropical

Abstract

Today, the Blue marlin stock is highly overexploited due to the intense fishing effort targeting tunas in the Atlantic Ocean. The blue marlin is an oceanic pelagic and migratory species caught as a tuna bycatch. Although current studies are imprecise, some mitochondrial DNA analysis has shown that there is a single Atlantic blue marlin stock. The present study has the objective to investigate the blue marlin’s reproductive biology, detailing the ovogenesis and characterizing the microscopic maturity stages. The microscopic stages were analyzed through histological cuts stained with hematoxilin/eosin and evaluated under optical microscopy. The MIF length for females ranged from 104 to 345 cm, with a mean of 210 cm. For the males the MIF length ranged from 100 to 267 cm, mean 189 cm. The microscopic maturity scale made for the species is composed of 6 stages for the females and 4 stages for the males. The sexual proportion found is 1.6 males for each female. The mean first maturity size for females was 194.2 cm and for males was 168.6 cm. The spawn type observed was the partial one. The fecundity varied from 2,151,000 and 6,769,060 oocites for females between 272 and 290 cm MIF length.