Parentage analysis of hatchery stocks from the european hake Merluccius Merluccius

Abstract

The European hake Merluccius merluccius is a demersal fish that exhibits high growth rate and has an important market value (Lloris et al., 2005). Those properties together with the overexploitation of its Atlantic fishery make this species a promising candidate for marine aquaculture (Engelsen et al., 2007). This species is at its very early stages of domestication the unique world stock being harvested at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (Iglesias et al., 2010). Early steps of domestication require conjugation of population genetic criteria to skip founding effects and monitoring reproductive schemes of cultured stocks. On the one hand, the population genetic background of the donor Atlantic population is well known after wide range studies using different markers (e.g. Pita et al., 2011). On the other hand, little is known on the reproductive behaviour of this species or on the genetic load of the European hake stock maintained at the Spanish IEO facilities (Vigo, Spain).