Age and growth differences in two populations of the edible marine gastropod Buccinanops globulosus

Abstract

Buccinanops globulosus is an edible marine gastropod that is being captured by artisanal fishermen without management regulations. As basic knowledge on population features is required in case a sustained commercial exploitation of this species is established, we estimated and compared the age and growth of B. globulosus in two populations separated by 16 km, inhabiting similar physical environments but different anthropic influence. Our results, based on stable oxygen isotope analysis and best fitted models by likelihood ratio tests, detected differences in age and growth between both samplings. Maximum shell marks suggest one year difference between populations. Richards was chosen as the best fitting model for both sampling sites and significant differences were observed between them. Human activities could be causing the age reduction among other irreversible effects on the population under anthropic influence. This should be considered when developing sustainable management regulations for this fishery resource, especially those based on shell/age size.