Bulletin of the Sea Fisheries Institute 2 (156) 2002 - CEEMaR

Occurrence, food and size structure of smelt larvae ..... 41
18
Temperature [C 0 ]
16
14
12
10
8
6
1996
1997
1998
1999
4
2
0
20
22
24
26
28
30
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
21
23
25
27
29
March
April
Fig. 5. Water temperature of the Curonian Lagoon in March and April of different years.
400
catches
larvae density
30
350
25
300
Catches [t]
250
200
150
20
15
10
Larvae density [ ind./m 3 ]
100
50
5
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Years
0
Fig. 6. Average density of smelt larvae at stations 13 and 16 of the Curonian Lagoon at the end of May
and at the beginning of June and the Lithuanian commercial catches of smelt in different years.
tion (Švagždys 1998). According to the literature, 4-year-old smelt are the largest part of the
biomass of commercial catches (Švagždys 1998). Although the catches of smelt in 1998 and
2000 were larger than in 1996-1997, we can expect that in 2002 and 2004 the stock size of this
species will be deficient since the density of smelt larvae in the Curonian Lagoon in those years
was the lowest (Fig. 6). The density of smelt larvae and the commercial catches of this fish in
1999 show that their resources in 2003 will be average.