The narrow-clawed crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus Eschscholtz, 1823)
is an indigenous species in Armenia. In 1980s it was occasionally introduced
in Lake Sevan where its population started to grow. There is a large
scale fishery of the crayfish in the Lake, as its demand remains high. Industrial stock of crayfishes at the Lake monitored
annually, shows statistically significant decline in the 2004-2011 period.
This decline can be described by logarithmic model y = -577.5ln(x) + 2158, F =
50.27, P<0.001. The catch rate of crayfish net-boxes also shows logarithmic
decline F = 9.27, P<0.05 in the 2004-2011 period. Since the net boxes are
designed to catch the larger size crayfishes only, the decline indicates a
decrease of average size among crayfish population. The female fertility does
not show statistically significant correlation with the industrial stock of
crayfish. It does, however, show negative correlation with the catch
rate of the net boxes: rPearson = -0.686,
P<0.05; ρSpearman = -0.647, P<0.05. The correlation can be explained
as the big animals are actively removed through harvesting, while smaller
animals are not captured; meanwhile the remaining smaller animals produce fewer
eggs. Decline of crayfish stock cannot be explained by diseases and invasive
species, but can be explained by overharvesting. Continuation of harvesting
aimed at supplying the existing demand might result to population decline of
more than 70% during next 17 years.
Narrow-clawed crayfish Astacus leptodactylus Abundance Lake Sevan Armenia
Konular | Hidrobiyoloji |
---|---|
Bölüm | Makaleler |
Yazarlar | |
Yayımlanma Tarihi | 2 Nisan 2015 |
Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2015 Cilt: 1 Sayı: 3 |