Age and growth of the king mackerel (Scomberomorus Cavalla) off the northeastern coast of Brazil

Abstract

Age and growth of the king mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla) were estimated for northeastern Brazil. A total of 405 sagittal otoliths from 140 males (24.4-112 cm), 73 females (28-114.8 cm) and 193 specimens of unknown sex (11.5-121 cm) were examined. Marginal increment analysis indicated an annual pattern for growth band deposition. The age classes ranged from 1 to 15 years. Length ranged from 11.5 to 121 cm. The Schnute model indicated that the von Bertalanffy growth model demonstrated the best adjustment, with p=1/b, and was therefore used for estimating growth. Backcalculated curves had smaller variances, giving the following estimated growth parameters for males: L∞= 116.8 cm, K = 0.190, t0 = 0.377; and females: L∞= 132.7 cm, K = 0.159 and t0 = 0.387. In order to compare the curves for males and females, the overlapping of 95% confidence intervals was performed for the parameters generated from the von Bertalanffy non-linear least square method. Specimens between 3 and 8 years of age represented 82.2% (n=5,783) of the catch composition, characterizing the species as a catchable stock in the region.

Age and growth of the queen triggerfish Balistes vetula (tetraodontiformes, balistidae) of the central coast of Brazil

“…Marginal increment analysis has been considered a low performance validation method (CAMPANA, 2001), particularly for tropical fish, with regard to which the technique has been questioned because of the environmental stability typical of tropical environments (JOBLING, 2002). However, factors such as food availability, reproduction and slight variations in temperature would promote differences in fish growth, which secondarily form the growth increments in spines, otoliths and other hard structures in fish from tropical waters (FOWLER, 1990;DEVRIES;FRIE, 1996;MORALES-NIN;PANFILI, 2005;NOBREGA;LESSA, 2009). Off the central coast of Brazil, where our samples were collected, there are annual temperature variations of about 4 o C (NIMER, 1989), which match the 4 to 5 o C suggested as necessary to induce the production of seasonal growth increments in fish hard structures (LONGHURST;PAULY, 1987).…”

Age and growth of skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) in the western equatorial Atlantic based on dorsal spines analysis

“…In contrast, Vilela and Castelo (1991) reported the formation of two rings per year for the same region and this difference may occurred because they analyzed pooled data from different years (from 1983 to 1989). Environmental and biological factors, such as temperature, reproduction, migration, food availability or being associated with other schools, can interfere with the periodicity of the formation of annual rings on dorsal spines (Fowler, 1990;Lessa and Duarte-Neto, 2004;Nobrega and Lessa, 2009;Duarte-Neto et al, 2012).…”