A comparison of the maturation of Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) from populations throughout the North Atlantic

Abstract

We examined the maturation of Greenland halibut from data collected on four populations: Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador-eastern Newfoundland, East Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Islands and the Northeast Arctic (Svalbard and Barents Sea). We compared the maturity schedules among these populations as well as the variability in the data from the different data sets. Estimates of size and age at 50% maturity were very similar for the different data sets except that the fish in the NAFO Divisions 2J + 3K portion of the Labrador-eastern Newfoundland area appeared to mature at a considerably larger size and older age. All data sets showed substantial variability with data from the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the 1996 to 2000 period being perhaps the least variable. When data collected over the entire distribution area were compared to data collected from portions of a population's distribution, there was substantially less variability.