Determination of size, sex and maturity stage of free swimming catsharks using laser photogrammetry

Marine Biology
Toby D RogersMichel J Kaiser

Abstract

The lack of detailed life history (LH) information (e.g. age, growth, size at maturity, sex composition etc.) for many species of conservation importance limits the implementation of appropriate conservation measures. Typically, LH information is acquired using lethal sampling techniques, which undermines the goal of conservation. This is particularly problematic for many shark species that have low fecundity and slow growth rates. Here we tested the use of non-invasive laser photogrammetry to measure body morphometry in vivo. We used random forest classification models to identify allometric relationships (ratios between body measurements) that discriminated between the sex and stage of sexual maturity of Scyliorhinus canicula. We coupled the use of allometric ratios (determined from cadavers) with parallel laser photogrammetry, in order to collect total length (TL) and finer scale morphometrics from 37 free-swimming individuals. TL measurements proved to be accurate (SE = 5.2%) and precise (CV = 1.8%), and did not differ significantly from the known TL of the respective animal (t36 = 0.7, P = 0.5). Conditional Inference tree model predictions of free-swimming sharks correctly predicted 100% of mature males and 79% of immature...Continue Reading

References

Jan 18, 2003·Science·Julia K BaumPenny A Doherty
Jan 27, 2007·BMC Bioinformatics·Carolin StroblTorsten Hothorn
Mar 27, 2010·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·M R Heupel, C A Simpfendorfer
Jul 22, 2011·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·Lény MercierDavid Mouillot
Aug 11, 2011·Systematic Biology·Hannes Baur, Christoph Leuenberger
Apr 15, 2015·PeerJ·Christoph A RohnerSimon J Pierce

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Citations

Apr 21, 2020·Journal of Fish Biology·Faviel A López-RomeroJürgen Kriwet
Jul 1, 2021·Ecology and Evolution·Tabitha R SiegfriedSusan E Piacenza

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
MDA

Software Mentioned

R package ‘ randomForest
party
PhotoID
SeaGIS
R package
ImageJ

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