Brief description
The southern calamari data-set includes all biological data (including length, weight, sex, maturity stage, egg size, and some age information) for southern calamari collected primarily from the east and southeast coasts of Tasmania.
Lineage
Maintenance and Update Frequency: irregular
Statement: All the data is linked back to fishing region as well as fishing method and capture date. The majority of individuals were collected using hand lines and jigs, however on several occasions, squid were collected by both purse-seine and jig.
The animals included have been captured by both commercial fishers and scientific staff and subsequent processing was carried out by scientific staff from the MRL-TAFI.
All animals were examined for sex and dorsal mantle length. Detailed biological information has been obtained on occasion from female calamari.
All squid kept were placed on ice within a few hours of capture and then transported to the laboratory where they were dissected within 15 h. Squid retained for dissecting were assigned a maturity stage. Dorsal Mantle Length (ML) was measured to the nearest 0.5 cm, and for those individuals retained, total body weight (BW) and mantle weight (mantle muscle mass only) were weighed to the nearest gram. The ovary and oviduct were weighed separately to the nearest 0.1 g and three oviduct eggs were measured from each female to assess the average egg size per individual.
Ageing of squid was performed using a lateral section of squid statoliths ground down and polished to improve visualisation of increment structures.
Notes
Credit
Australian Research Council (ARC)
Credit
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC): 2000/121
Credit
Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute
Purpose
The purpose of collecting this data was to determine and monitor the biological status of the southern calamari stocks of Tasmania.