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Age, Growth, And Mortality Of Atlantic Croaker, Micropogonias-Undulatus, In The Chesapeake Bay-Region, With A Discussion Of Apparent Geographic Changes In Population-Dynamics
Barbieri, Luiz R. Chittenden, Mark E. Jones, Cynthia M.
Barbieri, Luiz R.
Chittenden, Mark E.
Jones, Cynthia M.
Abstract
Atlantic croaker, Micropogonias undulatus, collected from commercial catches in Chesapeake Bay and in Virginia and North Carolina coastal waters during 1988-1991 (n=1,967) were aged from transverse otolith sections. Ages 1-8 were recorded, but eight-year-old fish were rare. Marginal increment analysis showed that for ages 1-7, annuli are formed once a year during the period April-May. Otolith age readings were precise: >99% agreement within and between readers. Observed lengths-at-age were highly variable and growth rate decreased after the first year. Despite the high variability in sizes-at-age, observed lengths for ages 1-7 fit the von Bertalanffy growth model (r2=0.99; n=753) well. No differences in growth were found between sexes. Total annual instantaneous mortality (Z) estimated from maximum age and from a catch curve of Chesapeake Bay commercial catches ranged from 0.55 to 0.63. Our results do not indicate the existence of a group of larger, older Atlantic croaker in Chesapeake Bay compared with more southern waters and suggest that the hypothesis of a basically different population dynamics pattern for this species north and south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, should be reevaluated.
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1994
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barbieri__3_.pdf
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Fisheries Science Peer-Reviewed Articles, Fish
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Virginia Institute of Marine Science