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Age and Growth of Vermilion Snapper from the Southeastern United States
Author(s) -
Potts Jennifer C.,
Manooch Charles S.,
Vaughan Douglas S.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1998)127<0787:aagovs>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - otolith , fishery , fish <actinopterygii> , annulus (botany) , vermilion , age groups , geography , biology , zoology , demography , chemistry , botany , organic chemistry , sociology
A comprehensive aging study of vermilion snapper, Rhomboplites aurorubens , was conducted, using 1,465 otoliths collected between 1991 and 1995 from the commercial and headboat fisheries from North Carolina through the Florida Keys. An additional 19 otoliths came from fishery‐independent samples from the South Atlantic Bight for fish smaller than 254 mm total length (TL), which is the legal size limit. Marginal increment analysis revealed that rings on the otoliths were deposited annually. This observation is further substantiated by the increasing modal radius of each age ring corresponding to the increasing modal size of the fish at age. Observed ages ranged from age 1 (202 mm mean TL) to age 14 (535 mm TL). The largest fish was 600 mm TL and was estimated to be age 13. The weight–length relationship was described by the equation: W = 9.55 × 10 −9 ( L ) 3.04 , where W = whole weight in kilograms and L = total length in millimeters. The von Bertalanffy equation was estimated using the inverse, weighted, back‐calculated lengths at the last annulus. The equation was L t = 650 (1− e −0.144( t +0.238) ), where t is age in years.