Chemical Signatures of Otoliths and Application In Fisheries

Stable isotope and trace elemental ratios (e.g., ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ¹³C/¹²C; Sr/Ca, Mg/Ca, Fe/Ca, and Zn/Ca) of otoliths have become powerful tools in fisheries research because otoliths contain information about the life history of the fish and that information can be extracted from chemical compositions. Since Devereux’s pioneer work in 1967, improved micro-sampling methods have extended our horizons beyond the laboratory experiments. On-going efforts in applying the chemical signatures of otoliths to more fish species and multi-species at the same water column have led to growing interest in fisheries science and management, particularly in natal source and early life history, stock structure, fish migration and behavior, and decadal-scale climate regime shift studies. This session aims to bring together researchers and managers using the isotopic and elemental tools in otoliths for fisheries issues and applications. We encourage contributions that will focus on novel and practical studies on multi-species and multi-tracers in biochemistry, although experimental submissions on otolith formation and geochemistry are always welcome.