Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2023
Höfundar / Authors: Tryggvi Guðmundsson, Haseeb Randhawa
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Háskóli Íslands
Kynnir / Presenter: Tryggvi Gudmundsson
Since the first successful experiment with using parasites as biological tags in 1939 the field has advanced to a level where it is now a common practice in stock discrimination. Studies on the European side of the North Atlantic have already had successes in the identification of stocks of a plethora of marine fish species using a variety of parasites suitable for each locality and species in question. In the past the lack of access to molecular tools to distinguish between cryptic species has led to false positives in published research but with these tools at our fingertips this is a diminishing problem. The research on parasites of fishes in Icelandic waters has been limited and inventories on them mostly incomplete. Despite haddock’s commercial importance, the research on their stock structure is lackluster. This research into the difference between parasite communities of haddock between the south- and north of Iceland showed a discernable difference between the abundance and prevalence of two parasites, the trematode Derogenes varicus and the copepod Lernaeocera branchialis. Both species are distinct enough to be readily identified without the use of molecular tools and would present a more convenient option over species such as microscopic myxozoan parasites that have been utilized for stock discrimination of haddock in other areas of the northeast Atlantic.