Age, growth, and mortality of gray triggerfish (Balistes capriscus) from the southeastern United States

Abstract

Abstract-Gray triggerfish (Bali-stes (−0.33(t+1.58)) ). Natural mortality (M) estimated by Hewitt and Hoenig's longevity-based method that integrates all ages was 0.28. Age-specific M values, estimated with the method of Charnov and others, were 0.65, 0.45, 0.38, 0.34, and 0.33 for ages 1, 3, 5, 10, and 15, respectively. Gray triggerfish recruited fully to recreational fisheries by age 4 and to the commercial fishery by age 5. Estimates of total mortality averaged 0.95 across all fisheries for the years 1986-2011.

Trace elements in oceanic pelagic communities in the western Indian Ocean

“…age = 5 years old; (Iwasaki, 1995). However, the observed difference of Hg contamination between skipjack tuna and triggerfish with similar lifespan (between 12-15 years; (Burton et al, 2015;Collette and Nauen, 1983) is most likely related to the difference of food sources observed between these two species. Indeed, C. maculata exhibited the lowest…”

Gray Triggerfish Reproductive Biology, Age, and Growth off the Atlantic Coast of the Southeastern USA

“…Commercial and recreational fisheries target Gray Triggerfish in the Mediterranean (Kacem et al 2015), U.S. Atlantic (North Carolina through Florida), U.S. Gulf of Mexico (SEDAR 2006), Brazil (Bernardes and Dias 2000), and Africa (Aggrey-Fynn and Sackey-Mensah 2012). Fishing pressure in the USA is relatively high, as the Gray Triggerfish is one of the top-10 species in terms of average landings (by weight) within the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council's snapper-grouper management complex (unpublished data source cited by Burton et al 2015). Historical commercial and recreational annual landings for Gray Triggerfish in this area increased from near 0 kg in the 1970s to a peak of nearly 200,000 kg in the mid-1990s, declined to around 90,000 kg in the early 2000s, increased to over 200,000 kg in 2012, and continue to remain high (NMFS Sustainable Fisheries Branch 2014a, 2014bBurton et al 2015).…”

“…Fishing pressure in the USA is relatively high, as the Gray Triggerfish is one of the top-10 species in terms of average landings (by weight) within the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council's snapper-grouper management complex (unpublished data source cited by Burton et al 2015). Historical commercial and recreational annual landings for Gray Triggerfish in this area increased from near 0 kg in the 1970s to a peak of nearly 200,000 kg in the mid-1990s, declined to around 90,000 kg in the early 2000s, increased to over 200,000 kg in 2012, and continue to remain high (NMFS Sustainable Fisheries Branch 2014a, 2014bBurton et al 2015). Fishery-independent abundance indices have highlighted a corresponding decline in overall population numbers during 2002-2011 ( Figure 1).…”

Factors affecting estimates of size at age and growth in grey triggerfish Balistes capriscus from the northern Gulf of Mexico

“…() reported an APE of 12% and Burton et al . () reported an APE of 11% for B. capriscus sampled in the Atlantic Ocean off the south‐eastern U.S. In the end, it is assumed that ageing error was randomly distributed among samples and results of hypothesis testing were not affected by systematic bias in ageing.…”

“…That said, the greatest contributor to the relatively high APE reported here for B. capriscus spines, both for study samples (10·8%) and for samples with accepted age estimates in a reference set (9·1%), is the difficulty in interpreting and counting translucent zones in spine sections. For example, Kelly-Stormer et al (2017) reported an APE of 12% and Burton et al (2015) reported an APE of 11% for B. capriscus sampled in the Atlantic Ocean off the south-eastern U.S. In the end, it is assumed that ageing error was randomly distributed among samples and results of hypothesis testing were not affected by systematic bias in ageing.…”