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Growth and Mortality of Red Snappers in the West-Central

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Growth and Mortality of Red Snappers in the West-Central SEDAR24-RD33 Transactionsof the American Fisheries Society' 111:465475, 1982 ¸ Copyrightby the AmericanFisheries Society 1982 Growth and Mortality of Red Snappersin the West-Central Atlantic Ocean and Northern Gulf of Mexico 1'2 RUSSELL S. NELSON AND CHARLES S. MANOOCH III National Marine Fisheries Service BeaufortLaboratory, Beaufort, North Carolina 28516 Abstract Age, growthrates, mortality, and length-weightrelationships were determined for red snap- persLutjanm campechanua from twoareas in the westcentral Atlantic Ocean and twoin the northern Gulf of Mexico.Growth ratesvaried only slightlyamong areas.The von Bertalanffygrowth equationwas Lt = 975(1 - e-ø'•6•t-ø'ø•) for fish from the Atlanticand Lt = 941(1 - e-ø'•7"+ø'") for fishfrom the Gulf of Mexico,where Lt is lengthat aget in years.The length-weightequation differed amongareas, but no differencewas evident between sexes. This equationfor fishfrom all areaspooled was W = 2.04 x 10-5 TLTM, where W is weightin gramsand TL is totallength in mm. Significantdifferences were found in totalinstantaneous mortality rates. The rateranged from 0.39 for fish off the coast of North Carolina and South Carolina to 0.78 for fish off the coastof Louisiana.Age of full recruitmentto the fisheryranged from 2 yearsoff Louisianato 6 yearsoff the Carolinas.Fishing mortality appears to be the majorcause of differencesin total mortality amongareas. In this paper we examine annual growth, ly little information is available concerningits mortality, and age structurein populationsof ecology.Length-weight relationships, move- red snapper Lutjanuscampechanus from four ments,and growthhave been studied, but most widely separatedgeographic areas. Red snap- work hasbeen limited to singlelocations in the persare large, predatoryfish commonly occur- Gulf of Mexico, samplesizes have been small, ring in associationwith live-bottomand deep- and data virtuallyare absentfor growthof fish reef areasfrom Cape Hatteras, North Carolina older than 5 years and for mortality (Camber to the Campechebanks of Mexico.South of the 1955; Dawson 1963; Moseley 1966; Beaumar- Cuban Straitsthey apparentlyare replacedby iage 1969;Moe 1969;Bradley and Bryan 1975; the nominal congenericCaribbean red snapper Futchand Bruger 1976; Wade 1978; Wakeman L. purpureus.The deep-reefhabitats, essentially et al. 1979). Recentlife-history studies of other tropicalto sub-tropicalin bioticcomposition, are fish in the deep-reef taxocenehave been based characterizedby extensivealgal, soft coral, and on collectionsfrom narrow geographicranges sponge growth in conjunctionwith bedrock and do not describethe amount of geographic outcroppings,drowned coral reefs, and other variation in demographicparameters•partic- bottom irregularities(Brooks 1962; Struhsaker ularly growth and mortalityrates--often incor- 1969;Smith et al. 1975;Bright and Rezak1976). porated into managementmodels. The red snapper contributesheavily to both commercialand recreationallandings through- Methods out its range (Allen and Tashiro 1976; Hunts- Red snappers were sampled between 1974 man 1976; Nakamura 1976). Despiteits value and 1979 from recreational headboat hook-and- to both domesticand foreign fisheries,relative- line fisheries operating off North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida, and from the commercial hook-and-line fishery off Louisi- ana. Samples were separated by geographic • Basedin part on a Master of Sciencethesis sub- areas: the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana (Loui- mitted by the seniorauthor to the GraduateSchool siana);the Gulf off PanamaCity, Florida(West Faculty,Department of Zoology,North CarolinaState Florida); the Atlantic Ocean off Florida from University,Raleigh, North Carolina. = Contribution 82-21-B 1, Southeast Fisheries Cen- Daytonasouth to Fort Pierce(East Florida); and ter, National Marine FisheriesService, Beaufort, North the Atlantic Ocean off North Carolina and Carolina 28516. South Carolina (Carolinas). All fish were col- 465 SEDAR24-RD33 466 NELSON AND MANOOCH lected between June 1978 and May 1979 in magnified image from the focus to each ob- Louisiana and West Florida. In East Florida, servedring. sampleswere taken from April 1976to October Otoliths (sagittae)were exposedby a trans- 1978. Samplingoccurred from April 1974 to versecut with a hacksawthrough the cranium November 1978 in the Carolinas. midwaybetween the posterioredge of the orbit Differencesbetween the commericalfishery and the preopercle.They were removed with (Louisiana) and the recreational fisheries (all forcepsand storedin paperenvelopes. All oto- other areas)should be noted.Fish taken by the lithswere sectioned laterally through the focus recreational fisheriesprobably were caught with a BuchlerIsomet 11-11803 low-speed saw within 90 km of the landingport, whereassam- by proceduresof Berry et al. (1977). Sections plesfrom the commercialfishery may have been of 0.18 to 0.28 mm thickness were mounted on taken 150 or more kilometersfrom port. Ad- glassslides with Permount3, and projectedand ditionally, the recreationalfisheries concentrate viewed in the same manner as scales. All mea- fishing pressureduring the daylight hours, surements were taken from the focus to each whereasthe commercialfishery operates around observedring alongthe medioventralridge. the clock.Because larger red snappersmay be Scales and otoliths fi'om all fish less than 235 more activeduring the day than smallerones mm and greater than 800 mm were used, be- (Bradleyand Bryan 1975),the recreationalcatch causeboth sizeextremes were infrequently en- mightbe slightlybiased toward larger fish. countered.The commonlysampled sizes were Fishwere measuredand weighedat the port dividedinto 50-mmlength classes and subsam- of landing, but no weightswere taken in Lou- pled. All scalesand otolithswere read at least isiana becausefish were gutted before exami- twice at an interval of 2 or 3 months. Those from nation.Fish sampled in the Gulf of Mexicohad fishgreater than 800 mm were read three times, fork lengths(FL) recordedbut thosefrom the and either the mode or the mean was used as Atlantic had total lengths(TL) recorded.All estimatedage. lengthsreported henceforth are TL. The re- Ratesof instantaneoustotal mortality (Z) were lationship of FL to TL is TL = 1.0712 estimatedby the regressionmethod (Ricker FL + 1.700; r = 0.99; N = 180. Scales were re- 1975)and the methodof Robsonand Chapman moved from all fish. Otoliths were removed ( 1961).Instantaneous rates of natural mortality from, and sex determined for, some fish. (M) were determinedwith the procedurede- The 4/0 to 9/0 hook sizescommonly used in scribedby Pauly (1980). An estimateof the in- all fisheries tended to exclude fish smaller than stantaneousrate of fishing mortality (F) was 180 mm from the catch. However, 263 small obtained by subtraction:F = Z - M (Ricker red snapperswere obtained from research 1975). trawlingoff the Carolinasand in SaintAndrews Bayin WestFlorida through the courtesyof the Results and Discussion South Carolina Marine Resources Research In- stitute, Charleston, and the National Marine Validityof AgeDetermination FisheriesService, Panama City, Florida. Scalesamples fi-om 2,151 fish representing Scaleswere taken from beneaththe tip of the all study areas were examinedand 76% were posteriorlyextended pectoral fin, storedin pa- usable.On legible scales,recurring patternsof per envelopes,cleaned, rinsed, and dried be- compressedcirculi in conjunctionwith marked fore being read and measured.They were ex- crossingover of circuliin the lateral fieldswere aminedby eye and with a hand lensfor signs consistentlyevident. We hypothesizedthat these of regenerationand potential legibility. If avail- compressedcirculi were annuli and took mea- able, four scalesfrom each fish were mounted surementsfi'om the focus to the midpoint of on glassslides and viewed on an Eberbach3pro- each.Circuli were quite closetogether in recent jector at 27x magnification.All measurementsannuli of the largestfish and exactdetermina- were taken along the anterior radius of the tion of the number of annuli became increas- inglydifficult as fish lengths exceeded 850 mm. Otolithsfrom 142 red snapperscollected off a Reference to trade names does not imply en- the Carolinas were examined and 90% were dorsementby the NationalMarine FisheriesService. legible.Left and right otolithsfi'om eight ran- SEDAR24-RD33 GROWTH AND MOR2'ALYi'Y OF RED SNAPPERS 467 Gulf of Mexico 2.C 1.1• /' 1.1• o__------ o• .• •o,..,..---.•// x\ \ \ ,.•-•'• o 1.• 4 - -'"*. // x •X., /' o/ •o 1.( 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 i i i i i I i i i I i I 2.2 Atlantic o 2.C 1,6 1.zl 4 \. / \ / o.,,......"'•--.,,/' 1.; 1.œ \ x"/ __,- 0.• ... 6 •<......• V / ,--- • • .... 50' •¾.. --... /%/ •.•._...•-.'-*•......... •=:-•i•7:;'-"---• ........ 0.1• \:.,. - ,-/.. I JAN FEBi MARi APRI MAYi JUNI JULi AUGI SEPI OCTI N •)V DECi MONTH F•OOR]•1.•Mean monthlyscale increment for red snappersaged 2 to 6 yearscollected in theAtlantic Ocean (1974- 1978) and theGulf of Mexico(1978-1979). TheApril incrementfor 4-year-oldred snappers is a singleobservation. domly selectedfish of 53 to 523 mm were read (N = 10; SD = 9.41), 68.2 mm in August (N = independentlyand agreed; thereafter we sec- 22; SD = 15.4),82.7 mm in September(N = 34; tionedonly the left otolithfrom the remaining SD = 16.7), and 103.5 mm in October (N = 11; fish.Otolith sectionsviewed in transmittedlight SD = 28.5). Samplesof otoliths were not avail- containednarrow opaque zones and wider hya- able for all months,but 18 1-year-oldfish col- line zones. The opaque bands were
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