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Age, Growth, And Mortality Of Atlantic Croaker, Micropogonias Undulatus, In The Chesapeake Bay Region, With A Discussion Of Apparent Geographic Changes In Population Dynamics, Luiz R. Barbieri, Mark E. Chittenden Jr., Cynthia M. Jones

OES Faculty Publications

Atlantic croaker, Micropogonias undulatus, collected from commercial catches in Chesapeake Bay and in Virginia and North Carolina coastal waters during 1988-1991 (n=1,967) were aged from transverse otolith sections. Ages 1-8 were recorded, but eight-year-old fish were rare. Marginal increment analysis showed that for ages 1-7, annuli are formed once a year during the period April-May. Otolith age readings were precise: >99% agreement within and between readers. Observed lengths-at-age were highly variable and growth rate decreased after the first year. Despite the high variability in sizes-at-age, observed lengths for ages 1-7 fit the von Bertalanffy growth model (r2=0.99; n=753) well. …