ADDITIONAL DATA ON THE SPAWNING OF THE HAKE 



John S. MacGregor' 



ABSTRACT 



In January 1970 samples of hake were taken off southern and central Baja California to study fecundity. 

 In the southern area female hake as small as 130 mm standard length contained developing eggs, and 

 all females longer than 140 mm contained such eggs. There is a marked cline in size at first maturity 

 of hake along the Pacific Coast (hake in the Pacific Northwest exceed 400 mm before reaching maturity). 

 Seventeen female hake 130 to 202 mm long taken in the southern area contained from 3,400 to 19,500 

 eggs or 229 per gram of fish; 11 females 222 to 305 mm from the central area contained from 3,500 

 to 110,000 eggs or 243 per gram of fish. In previously published data 22 female hake 346 to 688 mm 

 from northern Baja California contained from 33,000 to 496,000 eggs or 192 eggs per gram of fish. 

 There are no significant differences in fecundity among the three areas. The hake spawns once a year 

 with over 98% of the spawning taking place between January and April. 



In 1966, I published data on the fecundity of 22 

 female hake taken off northern Baja Cahfornia. 

 In 1970, additional samples of hake were ob- 

 tained from central and southern Baja California 

 to determine if there were geographic differ- 

 ences in hake fecundity in the offshore waters of 

 Baja California. 



The hake samples taken off southern and 

 central Baja California in January contained 

 prespawning females from which estimates of 

 fecundity were obtained. 



The hake from northern Baja California for 

 which fecundity data have been published (Mac- 

 Gregor, 1966) appear to be identical to those 

 taken off southern and northern California, 

 while those taken farther to the south are dif- 

 ferent with respect to growth rate and size at 

 first maturity and, in fact, have been described 

 as a different species (Ginsberg, 1954). 



The female hake for which fecundity deter- 

 minations were made were taken by trawl from 

 the research vessel David Star?- Jordan. Station 

 J-45-13 at lat 26°07' N, long 113°07' W was 

 sampled January 11, 1970. Station J-45-27 at 

 lat 28°44' N, long 115°15' W was sampled Jan- 

 uary 16, 1970. Methods for estimating fecundity 

 of the samples were essentially the same as used 

 previously (MacGregor, 1966). 



' National Marine Fisheries Service, Fishery-Ocean- 

 ography Center, La Jolla, Calif. 92037. 



Previous data on hake fecundity (MacGregor, 

 1966) were obtained from samples taken by the 

 research vessel John N. Cobb (Berry and Per- 

 kins, 1966). Station C-58-23 at lat 31°49' N, 

 long 117°53' W was sampled March 21, 1963. 

 Station C-58-29 at lat 29°46' N, long 116°01' W 

 was sampled March 23, 1963. Station C-58-31 

 at lat 29°35' N, long 116^00' W was sampled 

 March 25, 1963. 



FECUNDITY 



The range for fecundity data for samples 

 J-45-13 (Table 1) and J-45-27 (Table 2) com- 

 pare with Cobb 1963 samples (MacGregor, 1966) 

 as follows: 



J-45-13 

 Standard length (mm) 130 to 202 

 Weight (g) 22.1 to 57.0 



Gonad weight (g) 0.928 to 4.002 

 Advanced eggs 3.419 to 19.564 



Eggs per gram of fish 141 to 343 



1-4 S -27 

 222 to 303 

 88.0 to 221.0 

 3.279 to 22.710 



Cobb 1963 

 346 to 688 

 300 to 2,750 

 13.1 to 196.8 



3.496 to 110,017 33,000 to 496,000 

 38 to 498 



Manuscript accepted February 1971. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 69, NO. 3, 1971. 



83 to 556 



There is no overlap in the ranges of standard 

 length and fish weight of the samples from the 

 three localities. The number of advanced eggs 

 in the ovaries tends to increase with size of fish 

 both within and between samples. However, be- 

 cause of the great variation in the numbers of 

 advanced eggs among the individual fish, there is 

 considerable overlap in gonad weight and num- 

 bers of advanced eggs between successive 

 samples. 



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