60 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Fishery Bulletin 
^ established in 1881 •<#. 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Reproductiwe strategy of white anglerfish 
iLophim piscatorim} in Mediterranean 
waters; implications for management 
Email address for contact author: colmenero@icm.csic.es 
Institut de Ciencies del Mar (ICM) 
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cienfficas (CSIC) 
Passeig Maritim de la Barceloneta 37-49 
08003 Barcelona, Spain 
Abstract— Reproductive parameters 
of the white anglerfish (Lophius pis- 
catorius) in the northwestern Medi- 
terranean Sea were studied in 556 
specimens collected monthly aboard 
commercial fishing vessels that were 
trawling at depths of 12-836 m. The 
main spawning season occurred from 
February through June. The size at 
maturity was estimated to be 48.8 
cm in total length (TL) for males, 
59.9 cm TL for females, and 51.3 
cm TL for both sexes combined. The 
white anglerfish has group-synchro- 
nous oocyte development and deter- 
minate fecundity. It is a total spawn- 
er (spawns all its eggs once during 
a spawning season) and has a batch 
fecundity ranging from 661,647 to 
885,214 oocytes, a relative batch fe- 
cundity of 66-128 oocytes per gram 
of female gutted weight, and a po- 
tential fecundity with values from 
54,717 to 104,506 oocytes per kilo- 
gram of female total weight. This 
study is the first to provide the re- 
productive biology of white angler- 
fish in the northwestern Mediterra- 
nean Sea and provide valuable infor- 
mation that can be used to improve 
the stock assessment and ensure 
proper management of this species. 
Manuscript submitted 2 November 2015. 
Manuscript accepted 21 October 2016. 
Fish. Bull. 115:60-73 (2017). 
Online publication date; 15 November 2016. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.115.1.6. 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Ana I. Colmenero fcontact author) 
Victor M. Tuset 
Pilar Sanches 
The genus Lophius, commonly known 
as anglerfish, monkfish, or goosefish, 
belong to a family of bathydemersal 
fishes, which live and feed on the 
bottom of the seafloor generally be- 
low 200 m (Caruso, 1986). It includes 
7 species distributed around the 
world. The white anglerfish (Lophius 
piscatorius) is found in the northeast 
Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterra- 
nean Sea, and the black anglerfish 
(Lophius budegassa) coexists with 
white anglerfish over most of its 
range, although the black anglerfish 
has a more southerly distribution 
in the Atlantic (Caruso, 1986). The 
shortspine African angler (Lophius 
vaillanti) is found in the eastern At- 
lantic (Maartens and Booth, 2005). 
The devil anglerfish (Lophius vome- 
rinus) occupies the southeast Atlan- 
tic and the northern and western In- 
dian Ocean (Walmsiey et ah, 2005). 
The blackfin goosefish (Lophius 
gastrophysus) inhabits the western 
Atlantic, and the goosefish (Lophius 
americanus) occurs in the northwest 
Atlantic (Caruso, 1983). Finally, the 
yellow goosefish (Lophius litulon) is 
distributed in the northwest Pacific, 
in the Gulf of Po-Hai, in the Yel- 
low Sea, and in the East China Sea 
(Yoneda et al., 1997). 
We focused on white anglerfish, 
which can be found on the conti- 
nental shelf and slope, inhabiting 
depths from the shoreline to >1000 
m (Afonso-Dias and Hislop, 1996). In 
the Mediterranean Sea, this species 
cohabits with black anglerfish, and 
even though the distributions of both 
species overlap, no ecological compe- 
tition exists between them because of 
a temporal segregation in their daily 
biorhythms (Colmenero et al., 2010). 
Both of these species of Lophius play 
an important role in the trophic 
structure of benthodemersal ecosys- 
tems because they represent major 
predators, along with the European 
hake (Merluccius merluccius) (Diaz 
et al., 2008). In the community struc- 
ture of the northwestern Mediterra- 
nean Sea, species of anglerfish are 
considered top predators (Coll et al., 
2006; Vails et al., 2014). They are also 
reported to be important in the deep- 
sea community (depths from 200 m 
to the bottom of the ocean) because 
they are the most abundant species 
(Labropoulou and Papaconstantinou, 
2000; Maiorano et al., 2010). 
Despite the fact that the deep 
sea is the largest ecosystem on the 
planet, is highly diverse, and has a 
wealth of resources, it is still mostly 
unknown and poorly understood in 
comparison with shallov/-water ar- 
