AAggee,, GGrroowwtthh aanndd RReepprroodduuccttiivvee DDyynnaammiiccss ooff tthhee TTaallaanngg QQuueeeennffiisshh ((SSccoommbbeerrooiiddeess ccoommmmeerrssoonnnniiaannuuss)) iinn NNoorrtthheerrnn AAuussttrraalliiaa Shane Griffiths, Gary Fry & Tonya van der Velde FFiinnaall RReeppoorrtt Talang queenfish (Scomberoides commersonnianus Lacepède, 1801) Illustration courtesy of Bernard Yau (www.efishalbum.com) Age, Growth and Reproductive Dynamics of the Talang Queenfish (Scomberoides commersonnianus) in Northern Australia Griffiths, Shane. Age, growth and reproductive dynamics of the Talang Queenfish (Scomberoides commersonnianus) in northern Australia : final report to the National Oceans Office. Bibliography. ISBN 1 921061 08 1. 1. Carangidae - Australia - Age. 2. Carangidae - Australia - Growth. 3. Carangidae - Australia - Reproduction. I. Fry, G. C. II. Velde, T. D. van der. III. CSIRO. Marine and Atmospheric Research. IV. National Oceans Office (Australia). V. Title. 597.72 © National Oceans Office and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, 2005. This work is copyright. Except as permitted under the copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the copyright owners. Neither may information be stored electronically in any form whatsoever without such permission. DISCLAIMER The authors do not warrant that the information in this book is free from errors or omissions. The authors do not accept any form of liability, be it contractual, tortuous or otherwise, for the contents of this book or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The information, options and advices contained in this book may not relate to, or be relevant to, a reader’s particular circumstances. Opinions expressed by the authors are the individual options of those persons and are not necessarily those of the publisher or research provider. This publication should be cited as: Griffiths, SP, Fry, GC, van der Velde, TD (2005). Age, growth and reproductive dynamics of the Talang queenfish (Scomberoides commersonnianus) in northern Australia. Final report to the National Oceans Office. CSIRO Cleveland. pp. 39. Age, growth and reproductive dynamics of the Talang queenfish Table of Contents TABLE OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................... VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .........................................................................................................................................IX 1. SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................................... 1 2. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 FISHERIES....................................................................................................................................................... 4 3. OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................................................................................... 7 4. METHODOLOGY................................................................................................................................................ 8 4.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY REGION.............................................................................................................. 8 4.2 COLLECTION OF SPECIMENS ......................................................................................................................... 10 4.3 AGE AND GROWTH ....................................................................................................................................... 10 4.4 MORTALITY ................................................................................................................................................. 11 4.5 REPRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................ 12 4.5.1 Histology................................................................................................................................................. 13 4.5.2 Batch fecundity ....................................................................................................................................... 14 4.6 SEX RATIO .................................................................................................................................................... 14 4.7 GENETIC MATERIAL...................................................................................................................................... 14 5. RESULTS ............................................................................................................................................................ 15 5.1 AGE AND GROWTH ....................................................................................................................................... 17 5.2 MORTALITY ................................................................................................................................................. 21 5.3 REPRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................ 22 5.3.1 Length and age at maturity..................................................................................................................... 22 5.3.2 Spawning season..................................................................................................................................... 22 5.3.3 Batch Fecundity...................................................................................................................................... 25 6. DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................................................................... 26 6.1 AGE, GROWTH AND MORTALITY ................................................................................................................... 26 6.2 REPRODUCTIVE DYNAMICS .......................................................................................................................... 27 6.3 IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT................................................................................................................ 29 7. RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................................... 30 8. OBJECTIVES MET ........................................................................................................................................... 31 9. REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................................... 32 APPENDICES............................................................................................................................................................... 35 Age, growth and reproductive dynamics of the Talang queenfish Page vii Table of Figures Figure 1. Total catch by year of queenfish taken in Queensland and Northern Territory commercial fisheries and CPUE (kg day-1) in Queensland commercial fisheries only. Data sources are CHRIS 2005 and NTDBIRD unpublished data. ...................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 2. Number of fish taken and released by fishing tour operators in Queensland and Northern Territory between 1994 and 2004. Asterisks denote years where no data is available. Data sources are CHRIS 2005 and NTDBIRD unpublished data. ...................................................................................................... 6 Figure 3. Location of the Weipa study region within the Northern Planning Area (shown in inset). Sampling was conducted throughout Albatross Bay and the adjoining estuaries....................................................... 9 Figure 4. Length-frequency distributions (in 25 mm increments) for male and female queenfish (Scomberoides commersonnianus) captured using a range of sampling methods from the Weipa region between 22 April 2004 and 23 May 2005..................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 5. Length-weight relationship for Scomberoides commersonnianus in the Weipa region. Data has been pooled for both sexes.................................................................................................................................16 Figure 6. Fork length-total length relationship for Scomberoides commersonnianus in the Weipa region. Data has been pooled for both sexes.................................................................................................................. 17 Figure 7. Photographs showing the variation in clarity of opaque growth bands in sectioned otoliths for queenfish, Scomberoides commersonnianus. The images show an otolith (from a 703mm FL fish) with relatively well defined annual growth bands (left) and a typical otolith (from a 887 mm FL fish) with poorly defined growth bands (right). Arrows indicate identified opaque growth bands................... 18 Figure 8. Monthly mean (± s.e.)