Silver Hake of Scotian Shelf: Fishery, Environmental Conditions, Distribution, and Biology and Adbundance Dynamics

The results of USSR/Russian scientific research on silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis) population on the Scotian Shelf (NAFO Div. 4VWX) with regard to environmental conditions, distribution, biology and abundance dynamics are summarized for the period from the early-1960s to 1997. A brief description of the fishery is provided. Silver hake of the area form a self-reproducing group, geographically separated from more southwesterly stocks. They distribute demersally for the most part of the year and form aggregations mainly in deep-water depressions of the shelf and warm slope waters. Silver hake may be classified as a species with a high rate of renewal and of pronounced abundance fluctuations in response to climatic variations. The effect of any stock-recruitment relationship is over-shadowed by the impact of oceanographic factors within a wide range of spawning biomass. This paper makes an attempt to predict the trends of abundance of the silver hake population in the late-1990s and the first decade of the next century. While sharp variations of year-class abundance are caused by environmental variability, it is suggested that during this period, favourable conditions are expected for formation of relatively strong year-classes and, therefore, for good fishing.