Spatial and temporal distributions of larval sealw

Authors: McClelland G Misra R K Martell D J

Publish Date: 2000/02/01

Volume: 57, Issue: 1, Pages: 69-88

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Abstract

G McClelland R K Misra D J Martell Spatial and temporal distributions of larval sealworm Pseudoterranova decipiens Nematoda Anisakinae in Hippoglossoides platessoides Pleuronectidae in eastern Canada from 1980 to 1990 ICES Journal of Marine Science Volume 57 Issue 1 February 2000 Pages 69–88 https//doiorg/101006/jmsc19990518Larval sealworm Pseudoterranova decipiens infections were surveyed in the fillets and napes of 28 065 Canadian plaice Hippoglossoides platessoides 31–40 cm in length collected throughout Atlantic Canada between February 1980 and August 1990 Samples were taken from 11 locations in a 1980–1982 survey and from 38 to 55 locations in 1983–1984 1985–1986 1987–1988 and 1989–1990 surveys Prevalence P and abundance A of P decipiens were greatest P=96–100 A=1247–2232 in 1989–1990 samples from the central Scotian Shelf near Sable Island while plaice from northeastern Newfoundland and the Grand Banks were seldom infected P1 Temporal trend analyses revealed that between 1980 and 1990 sealworm infection levels increased significantly in plaice in 33 of 41 locations in the Gulf of St Lawrence on the Breton and Scotian shelves and in the Gulf of Maine Spatial and temporal distributions of larval P decipiens in plaice seemed to reflect the distribution and growing abundance of grey seals Halichoerus grypus important definitive hosts of the parasite but increases in levels of infection over the course of the decade may also have been promoted by a period of relatively high nearbottom temperatures in Atlantic Canadian waters in the late 1970s and early 1980s A more recent cooling trend in nearbottom temperature or other negative influences such as sealworm density limiting mechanisms in fish and seal hosts may have resulted in the stabilization or decline of sealworm levels in some plaice populations in the late 1980s and early 1990s

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