Abstract:
Coastal Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) are known
to spawn in the southern California Bight from January
to March, migrate north during late spring and summer
to feed off Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia,
and then move back to southern California in the fall.
Juvenile Pacific hake nursery areas have been found to
occur along the coastal shelf and slope of California, and
occasionally into southern Oregon during strong El Niño
events. In this paper, we combine information from several
studies that captured larval and high abundances of
young-of-the-year (YOY) Pacific hake in the northern
California Current from 2003–06. These preliminary
results suggest that spawning and recruitment of Pacific
hake have expanded northward and this will likely have
major economic and ecological consequences in the
northern California Current (NCC).
Description:
Previously published in California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations, Progress Report, 2007, Vol. 48; access courtesy of publisher and authors.
