DISTRIBUTION OF SHRIMP (PANDALUS-BOREALIS) LARVAE AND HYDROGRAPHIC PATTERN IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF ST-LAWRENCE

Although sites of emergence are related to the principal aggregation areas of adult shrimp, currently fished aggregations may not represent isolated populations. The uniformity of the developmental stages and the wide-spread distribution of the first larval stage were consistent with the hypothesis of synchronous larval emergence among the northern Gulf shrimp. The structured pattern of larval spatial distribution was not correlated with the hydrographic structure within the different sectors of the Gulf. The highly structured spatial distribution pattern of stage I larvae envolved into a spatially random pattern by the time stage III larvae had developed. Biological or ecological dynamic processes such as larval mortality and development rates are more important than the hydrodynamics of the sectors in determining the structure of larval shrimp distribution. -from Authors