Bulletin of the SFI 2 (162) 2004 - Production and oxygen consumption in the early life stages of herring and smelt in the Vistula Lagoon (Baltic Sea)

Production and oxygen consumption in the early life stages of herring and smelt in the Vistula Lagoon (Baltic Sea)
Bulletin of the Sea Fisheries Institute 2 (162) 2004, pp. 13-22

Krzysztof W. Opaliński¹, Krystyna Maciejewska² , Alina Krajewska-Sołtys² and Dariusz P. Fey²
¹ Center for Ecological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Dziekanów, 05-092 Lomianki, Poland
² Sea Fisheries Institute, Kołłątaja 1, 81-332 Gdynia, Poland

Key words: herring, smelt, larvae, production, respiration, Vistula Lagoon.

Abstract.
The production and oxygen consumption in larval and juvenile Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras) and European smelt (Osmerus eperlanus) collected in the Vistula Lagoon were measured in order to compare the energetic costs of growth for the two species. Production in herring and smelt are practically the same at 0.1200 mg Dw * d^-1 for herring and 0.1145 mg Dw * d^-1 for smelt. However, the specific metabolism of herring is approximately twofold higher in comparison with smelt (1.36 mm³ O₂ * Ww^-0.79 * h^-1 and 0.81 mm³ O₂ * Ww^-0.74 * h^-1, respectively). These results lead to the conclusion that the production of body mass in smelt is more effective than it is in herring.