Spawning traits of marine teleost fishes in Korean waters revealed by pelagic fish eggs

Abstract

Most marine teleosts' spawning strategy is the release of large quantities of separate pelagic eggs. The eggs could be used to investigate the spawning traits of the various fishes due to the highest probability of discovery of them in the spawning seasons. In this study, pelagic eggs were collected from Korean waters for each season from 2019 to 2021 and identified based on the morphological traits and COI barcoding and metabarcoding. A total of 122 taxa were found, of which were species level, 98; genus level, 14; and unidentified species, 10. Among them, Scomberomorus niphonius, Nibea albiflora, Larimichthys polyactis, Scomber japonicus, and Thunnus tonggol were commercial fishes, and Alepes djedaba, Trachipterus jacksonensis, and T. brachypterous were unrecorded species in Korean waters. It means that information on the distribution of fish eggs could be applied to the monitoring of spawning on the various species and the intrusion of rare fishes in Korean waters.