AbStraCt-Tautog Tautoga onitis 

 are gaining popularity in Virginia's 

 coastal waters as a recreational and 

 food fish. Adult tautog are season- 

 ally abundant on inshore hard- 

 bottom habitats (l-10m) and inhabit 

 offshore areas ( 10-75 ml year-round. 

 Juveniles, especially newly-settled 

 recruits, inhabit vegetated areas in 

 shallow water (usually <lm). From 

 March 1979 to July 1986, tautog 

 were collected in lower Chesapeake 

 Bay and nearby coastal waters to 

 examine age, growth, and sexual 

 maturation. Age estimates were de- 

 termined from annular marks on 

 opercle bones: 82% of the fish were 

 age-10 or younger, 18% exceeded 

 age-10, and 1% were age-20 or older. 

 Marginal increment analysis re- 

 vealed that annuli formed concur- 

 rent with a protracted spawning 

 season (April-July). The von 

 Bertalanffy growth equation, derived 

 from back-calculated mean lengths- 

 at-age. was l t =742 [1*o-«k '"■"»]. 

 Tautog are long-lived (25+ yr) 

 and attain relatively large sizes 

 (672 mm TL) slowly (K for sexes com- 

 bined = 0.085). Growth rates of both 

 sexes are similar, although males 

 grow slightly faster (#=0.090 vs. 

 0.085 for females). Maturity occurs 

 at age-3 in both sexes. Growth rates 

 for tautog from Virginia are similar 

 to those reported nearly 25 years ago 

 for tautog in Rhode Island. Growth 

 rates for tautog are similar to those 

 of other reef fishes, such as snap- 

 pers and groupers. Habitat restric- 

 tion, slow growth, great longevity, 

 and increasing popularity by user 

 groups may contribute to over- 

 exploitation of this species in Vir- 

 ginia waters. 



Age, growth, and reproduction of 

 tautog Tautoga onitis (Labridae: 

 Perciformes) from coastal waters 

 of Virginia* 



E. Brian Hostetter 



Biology Department, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23508 

 Present Address: NAS Oceana, Environmental Building 830, 

 Virginia Beach, Virginia 23460-5120 



Thomas A. Munroe 



Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary 

 Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062 



Present Address: National Systematics Laboratory. National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 NOAA, National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC 20560 



Tautog Tautoga onitis (Linnaeus) 

 range from Nova Scotia (Bleakney 

 1963, Leim & Scott 1966, Scott & 

 Scott 1988) to South Carolina 

 (Bearden 1961, Sedberry & Beatty 

 1989) and are one of the northern- 

 most-occurring labrids in the western 

 North Atlantic (only the cunner 

 Tautogolabrus adspersus ranges far- 

 ther northward). Tautog are locally 

 abundant in lower Chesapeake Bay 

 from Gwynn's Island near the mouth 

 of the Rappahannock River south to 

 Sandy Point on the eastern shore 

 (Hildebrand & Schroeder 1928), along 

 hardbottom areas including those as- 

 sociated with the Chesapeake Bay 

 Bridge-Tunnel network (CBBT) at the 

 mouth of the Bay, and along the south- 

 ern margin of the Bay near Lynn- 

 haven Inlet. This species also occurs 

 in coastal Atlantic waters off Virginia 

 on hardbottom areas around jetties, 

 and reefs and wrecks out to 65 km 

 offshore (Richards & Castagna 1970, 

 Musick 1972, Hostetter 1988). A wide 

 size-range of tautog occurs from spring 

 through late fall in the lower Bay and 

 on the seaside coast; larger individu- 

 als occur year-round on suitable habi- 



Manuscript accepted 23 October 1993. 

 Fishery Bulletin, U.S. 91:45-64 (1993). 



* Contribution 1758 of the Virginia 

 Institute of Marine Science, College of 

 William & Mary. 



tat offshore to 75 m and deeper. Newly 

 recruited juveniles and young fish to 

 about 100 mm usually inhabit shal- 

 low areas (lm or less) densely vege- 

 tated with macrophytic algae ( primar- 

 ily Ulva lactuca) or submerged 

 seagrasses including stands of Zostera 

 and Ruppia (Briggs & O'Connor 1971). 

 In more northern regions, a marked 

 decrease in activity of tautog has 

 been observed to occur in water tem- 

 peratures below 10° C (Olla et al. 

 1974). Smaller individuals overwin- 

 ter in shallow, rocky areas, whereas 

 when autumn temperatures fall be- 

 low 10° C, larger and older fish (>25 

 cm, >3-4 yr old) migrate to offshore, 

 overwintering areas. Adult tautog re- 

 turn from offshore wintering areas 

 to inshore spawning sites with onset 

 of increasing temperatures in the 

 spring (Chenoweth 1963, Cooper 

 1966, Stolgitis 1970, Olla et al. 1974, 

 Briggs 1977, Olla et al. 1979). In Vir- 

 ginia, tautog populations on near- 

 shore sites also undergo seasonal 

 fluctuations. However, seasonal 

 movements of tautog in Virginia's 

 coastal waters may not be as well 

 defined as the migration patterns 

 noted for tautog in more northern ar- 

 eas. In our study area, not all tautog 

 migrated to inshore areas during 



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