Fecundity and recruitment variability of Northeast Arctic Greenland halibut during 1980–1998, with emphasis on 1996–1998

Because of indications of recruitment failures and a historic low spawning stock, the Northeast Arctic Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides Walbaum) stock has been strongly regulated in the 1990s. Fecundity is a link between the spawning stock and the following recruitment. This paper describes relationships between fecundity and total length for Northeast Arctic Greenland halibut for 1997 and 1998, based on samples taken in autumn on the continental slope west of the Barents Sea. A previous study describes a similar relationship for 1996. Individual fecundity is raised to a population level using stock data from XSA, and sex composition data, maturity oogives, and mean length at age from surveys covering the area of distribution. Total egg production (TEP) varied slightly around 1.0×1011, during 1996–1998, with the highest TEP in 1998. A back-calculating exercise estimated annual TEP during 1980–1998 in the range 0.9–3.4×1011, and revealed that age groups 9–12 were the main contributors to TEP.