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Species composition of anguillid glass eels recruited at southern Mindanao Island, the Philippines

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Abstract

Commercial exploitation of tropical Anguilla species has been expanding rapidly in Southeast Asia, even though their ecological status is unknown. In the present study, we investigated the species composition of anguillid glass eels recruited in southern Mindanao, the Philippines. The glass eel specimens were collected monthly between April 2014 and March 2015 in General Santos and identified by morphological and genetic analyses (n = 4745). Among the seven species/subspecies identified, A. marmorata was the dominant species (76.1 %), A. bicolor pacifica was the second most abundant (19.5 %), and A. celebesensis, A. interioris, A. luzonensis, A. borneensis, and A. japonica rarely occurred (0.02–3.0 %). In addition, caudal fin pigmentation, which is an important diagnostic trait at the glass eel stage, was found to be similar in the short-finned A. bicolor pacifica and the long-finned A. interioris and A. borneensis. The recruitment of Anguilla in the Philippine archipelago comprises seven anguillid species, including endangered, vulnerable, and data deficient species, according to the latest IUCN Red List assessment. The results of the present study provide essential information for future studies of tropical anguillid species, and might contribute to the development of strategies for the management of their stocks.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mr. Yoshiyuki Terao and Mr. Masaki Takahashi of the Marubeni Nisshin Feed Co., Ltd. and the Cabadbaran Aquatech Resources Co. for their efforts in sample collection. The present study was partly funded by the Fisheries Agency of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Biosciences, Kitasato University, 1-15-1 Kitasato, Minami, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, 252-0373, Japan

    Fumiaki Shirotori, Takuma Ishikawa, Chikaya Tanaka & Tatsuki Yoshinaga

  2. International Coastal Research Center, Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Iwate, 028-1102, Japan

    Jun Aoyama

  3. Department of Biology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, 160-8402, Japan

    Chikaya Tanaka & Akira Shinoda

  4. College of Fisheries, Freshwater Aquaculture Center, Central Luzon State University, 3120, Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija, Philippines

    Apolinario V. Yambot

Authors
  1. Fumiaki Shirotori
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  2. Takuma Ishikawa
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  3. Chikaya Tanaka
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  4. Jun Aoyama
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  5. Akira Shinoda
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  6. Apolinario V. Yambot
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  7. Tatsuki Yoshinaga
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Correspondence to Tatsuki Yoshinaga.

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Shirotori, F., Ishikawa, T., Tanaka, C. et al. Species composition of anguillid glass eels recruited at southern Mindanao Island, the Philippines. Fish Sci 82, 915–922 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-016-1030-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-016-1030-8

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