This lecture and laboratory course offers a comprehensive view of the biology and taxonomy of early life stages of fishes. These stages, including pelagic eggs, larvae and newly-transformed juveniles, are abundant and diverse components of aquatic ecosystems. Their small size, dynamic growth and mortality rates, and dependence on ambient environmental factors, including ocean physics, make these stages vulnerable to variability in climate and to stresses of anthropogenic origin. Level of reproductive success in teleosts, termed recruitment, is highly variable and largely dependent on variability in survival of these early life stages. Knowledge of their morphological development contributes to studies of phylogenetic relationships. Ontogenetic data serve to clarify the complex systematics of teleost fishes, the most diverse and largest class of vertebrates. Early life stages often have specialized adaptations to insure survival in stressful habitats. In the laboratory, larvae of 145 families of teleostean fishes are examined and characters useful in identification are presented.

The objectives of this graduate-level course are to provide participants with the technical background, training and skills necessary to better understand the early life history and population dynamics of marine fishes and to confidently identify their larval stages. It is presumed that students will have some experience and academic background in fish ecology, fisheries science, ichthyology and biological oceanography. Prerequisites include an undergraduate degree in a biological discipline; permission of the instructors is required to be admitted to the course. No more than 20 students will be accepted. The lectures and laboratories will be held at the Marine Science Center of the University of New England. For further information, contact Dr. Olney (olney@vims.edu) or Dr. Houde (ehoude@cbl.umces.edu).