Distribution of Shrimp (Pandalus borealis) Larvae and Hydrographic Pattern in the Northern Gulf of St Lawrence

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Abstract
The large-scale spatial distribution of northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) larvae was analyzed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the spring of 1986 and 1987. Although sites of emergence are related to the principal aggregation areas of adult shrimp, it appears that the currently fished aggregations may not represent isolated populations. The uniformity of 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 (Mantel test; P > 0.05). Spatial correlograms showed that the highly structured spatial distribution pattern of stage I larvae evolved into a spatially random pattern by the time stage III larvae had developed. We suggest that 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 Consequently, on a seasonal basis, the distribution of larval shrimp groups cannot be inferred from a study of the hydrographic pattern within the sectors at the scale of our analysis.

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