ABSTRACT
Unité de Recherche Animal et Fonctionnalités des Produits Animaux, Université de Lorraine, 2 avenue de la Forêt de Haye, B.P. 172, 54505 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
* Corresponding author: p.fontaine@univ-lorraine.fr
Yellow perch and European perch (Perca fl avescens and P. fl uviatilis, respectively) are much appreciated for human consumption, particularly in inland areas. They are consumed in various ways (fi llet and whole fi sh) and size (small fried fi sh as well as large fi sh) (Tamazouzt et al. 1993). As a result, perch have been exploited in several water bodies for a long time, particularly in the north (Estonia, Finland, Sweden), the east (Poland, Russia) and in Western Europe for European perch and in North America (Canada and northern United States) for yellow perch. Perch harvest strongly increased at the beginning of the 1980s before stabilizing at around 25,000 tons per year ever since (www.fao.org). More recently, to respond to the increasing demand of the human consumption market, perch aquaculture has started to develop based on intensive rearing models and recirculated water technologies (Fontaine et al. 2008; Toner and Rougeot 2008). Nevertheless, these species, particularly the European perch, are also reared in much more extensive systems, namely polyculture in ponds, for the restocking markets and sport fi sheries. In this kind of system, perch are introduced as a pelagic piscivorous species and represent a low percentage of the overall production (<1%). Whatever the activity considered (management of wild populations for sustainable fi sheries, intensive or extensive aquaculture), an accurate knowledge of (1) the natural reproductive cycle; (2) the environmental determinism controlling these cycles; and (3) the factors regulating reproductive performance, are all required to improve the management of perch stocks in natural ecosystems or in polyculture ponds and to improve productivity of perch aquaculture.
