16 



Fishery Bulletin 89(1), 1991 



My data on interannual variations in body size com- 

 position suggest that large female queenfish (those in- 

 dividuals whose somatic condition and reproduction 

 were particularly stressed by reductions in their an- 

 chovy prey) responded to El Nino conditions in part 

 by emigrating out of the study area. The observed 1984 

 nadir in females >165 mm, followed by the return of 

 fish of this size in 1985-86, demonstrates that emigra- 

 tion had to have occurred, because 165-mm long queen- 

 fish are more than 3 years-old (E. DeMartini, unpubl. 

 data). Large fish might have emigrated to deeper 

 depths, tracked colder water masses upcoast, or done 

 both; unfortunately, lack of data prevent discrimina- 

 tion among these possibilities. 



The only published evidence thus far for El Nino 

 effects on adult fish condition and egg production off 

 the west coast of North America are for the central 

 stock of the northern anchovy (Fiedler et al. 1986), 

 yellowtail rockfish Sebastes flavidus (Lenarz and 

 Echeverria 1986), and for Pacific herring Clupea 

 harengus pallasi (Tanasichuk and Ware 1987). In an- 

 chovy, individual egg production was lower in 1983-84 

 than in 1980-82 and 1985; this reflected lower spawn- 

 ing frequencies more than declines in batch fecundity 

 (Fiedler et al. 1986). Specific fecundity (the daily pro- 

 duction of eggs per unit biomass) of anchovy was low 

 in 1983 (although high in 1984, the second El Nino year) 

 compared with other years between 1980 and 1985. 

 Growth rates of juvenile-adult anchovy were low in 

 1983-84 (Fiedler et al. 1986). For yellowtail rockfish 

 off the central California coast, the visceral fat and 

 gonad volumes of adults were lower in 1983 than in 

 1980 (Lenarz and Echeverria 1986). Off British Co- 

 lumbia, Pacific herring responded to the El Nino with 

 increased batch fecundities coincident with reductions 

 in mean egg size (Tanasichuk and Ware 1987). Adults 

 of the anchovy and rockfish do not regularly occur in 

 inner-shelf waters: most anchovy frequent the Califor- 

 nia Current, tens to several hundred kilometers off- 

 shore of central and southern California. Adult yellow- 

 tail rockfish are an epibenthic predator of continental 

 borderlands offshore of the coasts of British Columbia- 

 California. 



It is tempting to speculate that the observed decrease 

 in fecundity and somatic condition of queenfish during 

 1984 reflects lower production of the planktonic and 

 anchovy prey of adults during a major El Nino year, 

 compared with the 1979-80 and 1985-86 periods. If 

 true, these data are among the first to show annual 

 variations in egg production resulting from differences 

 in size-specific batch fecundity, rather than changes in 

 the duration of the spawning season or changes in the 

 spawning frequency of females (Hunter et al. 1985). 

 Interestingly, queenfish egg mass was not detectably 

 lower in 1984, concurrent with the 20% decline in the 



number of eggs produced per batch, so the impact on 

 egg production may have involved only the quantity, 

 not the quality of eggs. Total number of spawnings per 

 female season, whether due to changes in the duration 

 of the spawning season or frequency of spawning by 

 individual females, also might have varied for queen- 

 fish during 1979-86, but data are lacking. Length of 

 spawning season and the interval between batches are 

 unlikely to cancel out the batch fecundity pattern, 

 though, since they might be expected to vary in con- 

 cert with fecundity, if they covary at all (Hunter et al. 

 1985). 



My observations also provide one of the first sugges- 

 tions of food web impacts of the 1982-84 California El 

 Nino on an inner-shelf fish species. Unfortunately, data 

 on potential El Nino effects on the survivorship of 

 early-life stages and year-class establishment are lack- 

 ing for queenfish, as for offshore fishes. Future studies 

 should concurrently measure survivorship and recruit- 

 ment, together with population fecundity and egg pro- 

 duction of the stock, in addition to individual fecundity 

 and condition. 



Acknowledgments 



Many skilled technicians assisted in the collection of 

 sample fish and in dissecting and processing ovaries. 

 I especially thank S. Garner, K. George, G. Greenwald, 

 and D. Opalenik. Special thanks go to R. Fountain, 

 without whose diligent notekeeping this study would 

 not have been possible. Also gratefully acknowledged 

 are the constructive criticisms of T. Present and 

 E. Schultz on drafts of the manuscript. Two anony- 

 mous reviewers contributed substantially to the im- 

 provements of draft manuscripts. This study was done 

 in conjunction with complementary work funded by the 

 Marine Review Committee, Inc., of the California 

 Coastal Commission, and I thank the Committee for 

 their support. 



Citations 



Allen. L.G., and E.E. DeMartini 



1983 Temporal and spatial patterns of nearshore distribution 

 and abundance of the pelagic fishes off San Onofre-Oceanside, 

 California. Fish. Bull., U.S. 81:569-586. 

 Antony Raja, B.T. 



1971 Fecundity fluctuations in the oil sardine Sardinella 

 longiceps Val. Indian J. Sci. 18:84-98. 

 Bagenal, T.B. 



1957 Annual variations in fish fecundity. J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. 

 U.K. 36:377-382. 

 Bagenal, T.B., and E. Braum 



1971 Eggs and early life history. In Ricker, W.E. (ed.), Methods 

 for assessment of fish production in fresh waters, p. 166-198. 



