FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 81, NO. 3 



fourth, 33 (4 fish), but the next highest value for the 

 third was 32 (6 fish). 



Although growth increments appear to be de- 

 posited daily, the age at deposition of the first ring is 

 unknown because newly hatched gold spot herring 

 were not available. Brothers et al. (1976) found that 

 the northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax, deposits 

 the first ring at 5 d and the grunion, Leuristhes tenuis, 

 at 1 d after hatching. The otolith "age" or number of 

 rings in the gold spot herring is probably only a few 

 days less than the actual age, and the error for the for- 

 mer is substantial only for the youngest fish. 



The ring counts from 106 gold spot herring 17-121 

 mm SL (Fig. 6) indicate that the smallest individuals 

 were about 1 -mo-old, both sexes mature at about 5-6 

 mo, and the largest fish was probably about 1-yr-old. 

 Variability was high in length of fishes estimated to 

 be older than 6 mo. There was no definite difference 

 between males and females except that several 

 females were both older and larger than any males. 



Data suggest at least two growth cycles or stanzas. A 

 two-cycle Gompertz-type model from Zweifel and 

 Lasker (1976) was fitted to the data by a nonlinear 

 least squares iteration. The equation was 



L, = 8.07e 



1.48(l- 



-° 03M ) + 1.37(l- e -° 013B ) 



where A = Min{t, 59.6) andfi = Maxtf - 59.6, 0) and? 

 is the estimated age in days. The curve describes the 

 data quite well for the fish < 80 mm, and the length at 

 the break value for the two cycles of the curve, 59.6 d, 

 is about 30 mm — identical to the size at which 

 transformation appeared complete and subsequent 

 growth more nearly isometric. The model predicts a 

 length at time infinity of 1 19 mm — about the size of 

 the largest male but well below that of the largest 

 female. This indicates that the growth pattern for 

 males is similar to that of juveniles, but a different 

 curve or perhaps a third stanza may be required to 

 describe the growth of females after maturity. 



40 



80 



120 



160 



200 



240 



280 



320 



NO. RINGS = AGE (days) 



FIGURE 6. — Relationship between standard length and number of otolith rings or approximate age in days for 106 Herklotsichihys quad- 

 rimaculatus collected off Oahu, Hawaii. Females are indicated by open circles; solid circles represent juveniles (<80 mm SL) and males. Curve 

 is drawn from a two-cycle growth model fitted to the data (see text). 



594 





