The viable eggs that were neutrally buoyant were concentrated using a 250-lm screen and transferred into four black conical incubators (25 l). Seawater was provided from a 50-m-deep well with a constantsa linity of 32 ppt. The eggs were incubated in darkness in aerated seawater with an in flow of 1.0 l min-1. Temperature inside the incubators was maintained at around 8.0 ±0.5 °C. Oxygen satura-tion was regularly measured using OxyGuardÒ(Oxy-Guard International A/S, Denmark) and kept above 90 %. One day AF, the eggs were disinfected with Pyceze (50 % bronopol) at a concentration of 100 ppm for a duration of 30 min.