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Latitudinal mixing and movement of eastern school whiting (Sillago flindersi) in south-eastern Australia indicated from otolith trace element chemistry
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Latitudinal mixing and movement of eastern school whiting (Sillago flindersi) in south-eastern Australia indicated from otolith trace element chemistry

Karina C. Hall, Kris Cooling, Brendan P. Kelaher, Kyne Krusic-Golub, Stephen G. Morris, Curtis Champion and Renaud Joannes-Boyau
Estuarine, coastal and shelf science, Vol.341, pp.1-15
15/10/2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2026.110145
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Science and Engineering Publications

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Abstract

Fisheries LA-ICPMS otolith chemistry smelt whiting stock structure trace elements
The eastern school whiting (Sillago flindersi) is a short-lived, demersal smelt whiting (family Sillaginidae), with a distribution that spans more than 15 degrees of latitude along the south-eastern Australian coastline. The species is targeted by commercial trawl fisheries and catches and management are shared among several jurisdictions. To improve the spatial allocation of cross-jurisdictional stock assessments and harvest strategies, we investigated the stock structure, larval dispersal and movement patterns of S. flindersi by analysing the otolith chemistry of 3 to 9-year-old adults sampled from 14 broad zones. Trace element profiles were measured from the juvenile core to the outer adult edge of sagittal otolith thin sections using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS). Significant ontogenetic and spatial variation in chemical concentrations across otoliths was detected, particularly among fish from the extremities of the species’ distribution, in separate univariate mixed-effects models for each trace element. Whereas, multivariate analyses of combined otolith elemental signatures for juvenile cores and final adult increments, analysed as separate data subsets, showed considerable overlap and limited discrimination among fish from different sampling zones. Collectively, these results suggest that S. flindersi comprises a single biological stock, but with incomplete mixing and complex ontogenetic and potentially partial migration patterns, resulting in greater variation among fish from the extremities. These findings are consistent with recent genetic data from next-generation sequencing and otolith oxygen isotope analyses that also detected evidence for some isolation by distance and sub-structuring within broader biological stock boundaries.

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