| Swordfish Xiphias gladius is an oceanic-pelagic species. Its population structure in the Western Indian Ocean was studied from the shape of the sagittal otoliths of 391 individuals collected from 2009 to 2014. Normalised elliptical Fourier descriptors (EFDs) were extracted automatically using TNPC software. Principal components analysis (PCA) conducted on EFDs showed no significant effect of side (i.e. left or right otolith). Consequently, all 391 sagittal otoliths were used to identify stocks among six geographical areas: Reunion Island, Mozambique Channel, Rodrigues, South Africa, Madagascar South and Sri Lanka. To investigate the effects of sex, sampling year, sampling season, lower jaw fork length or geographical area on variations in otolith shape,... |
