Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2024
Abstract
Objective: We investigated the validity of daily age estimates for juvenile Common Snook Centropomus undecimalis by using sectioned and sanded sagittal otoliths. Methods: Common Snook have a protracted spawning season, which is problematic for validation of daily ages because a hatch date—needed to calculate age—cannot be reasonably assigned like it can for species with a short spawning period (<30 days). To help overcome this, two readers independently counted presumed daily increments in otoliths collected from hatchery-reared Common Snook of known age (100–240 days; n = 91). Result: Differences between known ages and those estimated from otoliths were small (mean absolute difference = 3.4 days) for individuals aged 100 days, but these differences increased after 100 days, mainly due to the crowding of increments along the otolith margin. Underestimation of ages was 8% at 120 days, 29% at 180 days, and 36% at 240 days. Conclusion: Ideally, analyses based on counts of daily increments in Common Snook otoliths should be limited to fish with an age of 100 days or younger.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Stevens, P. W., Williams, K. L., Pfennig, M. B., Schloesser, R. W., Trotter, A. A., & Crane, D. P. (2024). Use of hatchery-raised fish in validation of daily age estimates for juvenile Common Snook. Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science, 16, e10321. https://doi.org/10.1002/mcf2.10321. Available at https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/biology/
Comments
Oxford University Press originally published this article.