Hi;
I'm writing to the list on behalf of a friend of mine who cannot contact you. He recently sent me an e-mailing, mentioning some results about the distribution of Engraulis australis in North-East Australia. His message says:
"In my data, Engraulis australis spawn at 2 very different areas: 1 is right deep inside the estuary where the water exchange rate is almost zero, the other one is out at sea where there are a lot of water exchanges, water turbulence, busy traffic, lots of predators,etc... Now, i want to find out the reason why do they do that? This species is having the same spawning behaviour every where, in southern Australia, in Western Australia, in Queensland. The only reason i can think of is this spawning behaviour occur because these are 2 sub-species of the one Engraulis australis species."
I found this observation very interesting. According to him, Engraulis australis is not the only fish which behaves that way... Eg. Gobiopterus semivestita, a goby species, is having exactly the same spawning behaviour.
Has anyone came accross the same results before? What do you think could be the explanation of these fishes spawning in 2 different environments, however not too far away in distance? Could it be a matter of evolution, or are there other possible explanations?
Thanks for sending your reply to myself, as well as to Tri Pham who is conducting this work. His e-mail address is: [log in to unmask]
Cheers Valerie
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