RALSTON AND MIYAMOTO: OTOLITH INCREMENTS OF HAWAIIAN SNAPPER 



ship between asymptotic weight ( W« or the weight of 

 an individual at length LJ and K by developing the 

 concept of the auximetric grid. He has argued that 

 the logarithm of the product of K and W„ is relatively 

 uniform for families of fishes. That is 



P=log w (KW.) 



where P can be considered characteristic of taxa. 



A review of the lutjanid growth literature allowed us 

 to estimate P for lutjanids by computing the 

 arithmetic average of the eight P values presented in 

 Table 4 (P = 3.03). An estimate of the asymptotic 

 weight of opakapaka is 7,670 g (Ralston 1981). Using 

 these two figures, we calculate an estimate of K for 

 opakapaka to be 0.140 yr" 1 . This figure compares 

 very favorably with the estimate of K obtained from 

 the constrained fit of the von Bertalanffy model to 

 otolith data from immature fish presented earlier 

 (0.1 46 yr" 1 ). The results of our marking experiments, 

 length-frequency data, and literature comparisons 

 all support the conclusion that increments are 

 formed daily in subadult opakapaka (up to 3 yr old). 



After considering all of the assumptions that un- 

 derlie our analysis, we conclude that the results pre- 

 sented in Figure 9 accurately reflect the growth of 

 opakapaka. Other investigators (Moffitt 1980; 

 Radtke footnote 3) have presented growth curves for 

 opakapaka, also based on otolith microstructure, but 

 which show somewhat faster growth, especially for 

 large, mature fish. Both studies were based upon 

 complete counts of growth increments. We attribute 

 the differences between our estimates and theirs to 

 growth interruptions confounding the otolith time 

 record in adults. These earlier studies neglected to 

 entertain this possibility, an oversight which could 

 lead to serious underestimates of age. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



This research was sponsored largely by the Univer- 

 sity of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program under In- 

 stitutional GrantNo. NA79 AA-D-00085 from NO AA 

 Office of Sea Grant, Department of Commerce. It is a 

 product of the "Snapper and Grouper Management" 

 project (NI/R-7) and constitutes journal contribu- 

 tion UNIHI-SEAGRANT-JC-83-13. Additional sup- 

 port was provided by the University of Washington 

 Sea Grant College Program under Grant No. 

 NA79AA-D-00054. Comments provided by J. Archie, 

 J. H. Uchiyama, W. Walsh, J. A. Wetherall, and H. O. 

 Yoshida helped improve an early draft of the manu- 

 script. Special thanks are due J. J. Polovina for his 

 continued interest and input as the research 

 progressed. 



TABLE 4. — Growth relationships among the Lutjanidae with appli- 

 cation of the auximetric grid (Pauly 1979). 



log 



IKWoc). 



2 Estimateo from Walford plots of size-at-age data. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Barkman, R. C. 



1978. The use of otolith growth rings to age young Atlantic 

 silversides, Menidia menidia. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 

 107:790-792. 



Beverton, R. J. R, and S. J. Holt. 



1959. A review of the lifespans and mortality rates of fish in 

 nature, and their relation to growth and other physiologi- 

 cal characteristics. Ciba Found. Colloq. Ageing 5:142- 

 180. 



Blacker, R. W. 



1974. Recent advances in otolith studies. In F. R. Harden 

 Jones (editor), Sea fisheries research, p. 67-90. John 

 Wiley & Sons, N.Y. 



1975. Stereoscan observations of a plaice otolith. J. Cons. 

 36:184-187. 



Brothers, E. B. 



1978. Exogenous factors and the formation of daily and sub- 

 daily growth increments in fish otoliths. Am. Zool. 

 18:631. 



1979. Age and growth studies on tropical fishes. In P. M. 

 Roedel and S. B. Saila (editors), Stock assessment for 

 tropical small-scale fisheries, p. 119-136. Int. Cent. Mar. 

 Resour. Dev., Univ. Rhode Island 



1981. What can otolith microstructure tell us about daily and 

 subdaily events in the early life history of fish? Rapp. P.- 

 V. Reun. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer 178:393-394. 

 Brothers, E. B., C. P. Mathews, and R. Lasker. 



1976. Daily growth increments in otoliths from larval and 

 adult fishes. Fish. Bull., U.S. 74:1-8. 



Brothers, E. B., and W. N. McFarland. 



1981. Correlations between otolith microstructure, growth, 

 and life history transitions in newly recruited french 

 grunts (Haemulon flavolineatum (Desmarest), Haemu- 

 lidae). Rapp. P.-V. Reun. Cons. Int Explor. Mer 178:369- 

 374. 



Campana, S. E., and J. D. NE1LSON. 



1982. Daily growth increments in otoliths of starry flounder 

 (Platichthys stellatus) and the influence of some en- 

 vironmental variables in their production. Can. J. Fish. 

 Aquat. ScL 39:937-942. 



CHOE, S. 



1963. Daily age markings on the shell of cuttlefishes. Nature 



(Lond.) 197:306-307. 



533 



