Background. There is still a widespread notion that bony fishes with high fecundities
are more productive and therefore more resistant to overexploitation. The purpose of
this study was to formally explore the relationship between fecundity and reproductive
success expressed as maximum annual reproductive rate, i.e. the number of new
spawners produced by existing spawners at low population densities.
Material and methods. We used maximum annual reproductive rate from a recent
study covering 49 species of bony fish; we used fecundity estimates from the published
literature.
Results. We found no significant relationship between fecundity (ranging from 368 to
10 million eggs) and maximum annual reproductive rate (ranging from 0.4 to 13.5
replacement spawners).
Conclusion. Fecundity in oviparous bony fish without parental care has no relation with
reproductive success. Apparently high fecundity in bony fish has evolved to counterbalance
pre-adult mortality, as indicated by the fact that variance in fecundity is 3 orders
of magnitude larger than variance in annual reproductive rate
