Zygochlamys patagonica spat: we found them!

BREMEC C.; ESCOLAR M.; SCHEJTER L.; GABRIEL NESTOR GENZANO

Halifax

Congreso; 16th. International Pectinid Workshop, Halifax, Canadá; 2007

After exploratory cruises in the Argentine Sea during 1995 (Lasta and Bremec, 1998), the patagonian scallop fishery produced total annual scallop catches ranging from 37.000 to nearly 43.000 tons/year, between 1996 and 2005. Evaluation of the different management units is developed annually to assess biomass of the stocks and composition of the invertebrates by-catch. During 2006, the study of epibiosis on  species of invertebrates was faced with particular emphasis in order to register the presence of recently settled spat (sensu Cragg, 2006) of Zygochlamys patagonica and to recognize their primary settlement substrate (PSS) in the exploited areas along the highly productive shelf break front (Acha et al., 2004). We present results about spatial distribution of microscopic spat and preferential settlement substrates between 37º and 44º S along the 100m isobath.