Age and Growth of the Tautog,Tautoga onitis(Linnaeus), from Rhode Island
- 1 April 1967
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
- Vol. 96 (2) , 134-142
- https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8659(1967)96[134:aagott]2.0.co;2
Abstract
The validity of age determinations from the opercular bone of the tautog (Tautoga onitis) is established. An examination of the opercular bone margin over a 1‐year period demonstrated that the sharp transition from translucent to opaque bone represents a year mark. A logarithmic transformation of both fish length and length of the opercular bone was linear. Lengths at annuli were calculated by this relationship. Males grow faster than females in length (548 mm at age 22 compared with 501), but slower in weight (1,716 grams at age 20 compared with 2,094 grams for females). The eviscerated weight of male and female tautog captured in May and June increased as the 2.78 and 3.02 powers of the length. The greatest age of tautog examined was about 34 years. Growth differences among discrete spawning groups from Narragansett Bay were not significant.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: