Stock Identification of American Monkfish in Northwest Atlantic Using Mitochondrial DNA

The American monkfish (Lophius americanus) supports one of the most lucrative fisheries in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. Despite a paucity of life history, genetic or behavioral data, monkfish management in the US divides the species range into Northern and Southern Management Areas (NMA and SMA). However, little is known of stock structure, an understanding of which is critically important to population assessment. The purpose of this study was to elucidate genetic differences between the two monkfish management areas. Monkfish (males, n =138; females, n= 153) were collected seasonally (winter-spring, fall) with gill and trawl nets from Cape Cod, MA to Cape Hatteras, NC during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center research cruise, 2009 NEFSC Cooperative Monkfish survey, and 2010 NEFSC annual trawl survey. Preliminary studies revealed three major genetic clades that were spatially distributed and not associated with management areas. Mapping of the observed clades will be performed to determine spatial distribution and genetic data analysis will be conducted to examine the population genetics and haplotypes of collected individuals between the clades found within the management areas.