Morphological identification
MI of fish eggs and larvae was conducted in the Laboratory of Marine Fisheries Research Institute of Zhejiang. A dissecting microscope attached with a camera (Nikon smz 800-Japan) was used for MI. In the MI procedure for fish eggs, diagnostic characters chosen for observation included (1) the size of egg, (2) oil ball, and (3) pigment in the egg shown in Table 1 (Zhang et al. 1985). In the MI procedure for fish larvae, diagnostic characters observed included (1) dorsal fin, (2) anal fin, and (3) melanin/pigment in the larva shown in Table 2 (Zhang et al. 1985).
Table 1. Morphological identification of species for fish egg samples collected from different stations (see station codes on Fig. 1) in the East China Sea off the Coast of Zhoushan Archipelago (ECS-CZA) in the years of 2018 and 2019. N/I – Not Identified. †Some small oil balls nearby a large yellow oil ball.