Studies on the Effect Evaluation of Stock Enhancement and Mating Strategy of Sepia Esculenta Based on Release—recapture Survey

The golden cuttlefish, Sepia esculenta Hoyle, 1885, is an economically important cephalopod, and its resources have declined significantly due to overfishing and habitat destruction. In order to recover the natural resources, stock enhancement of golden cuttlefish has been conducted for a few years in Shandong Province, China. However, little information has been reported concerning the effectiveness and genetic effect of the massive releases. In the present study, microsatellite markers were employed to trace the whole process of S. esculenta stock enhancement in Qingdao at 2016. Furthermore, the pedigree of hatchery populations (broodstock and offsprings) was traced to detect the mating behaviors of S. esculenta. In summary, the high genetic diversity and similar genetic variability with wild population were detected, and the effective population sizes (Ne) of broodstock, offspring and wild populations were high. Only 3 individuals were identified from 372 captured samples, accounting for 0.806%. We speculated small number of marked individuals may be the key factor for low recapture rate. Furthermore, we found a male broodstock mated with two female parents, this indicated complicated promiscuity behavior of S. esculenta.