DARK: AGE AND GROWTH OF PACIFIC HAKE 



Washington occurred throughout the fishing 

 season. These samples were combined as "early" 

 (collected in May-June), "middle" (July), and 

 "late" (August-October) samples for the purpose 

 of identifying any gross seasonal changes in age 

 composition (Figure 6). The 1966 early sample 

 contains somewhat fewer 5-yr-olds and more 6- 

 yr-olds than either the middle or late samples 

 which are very similar. For all practical purposes, 

 the age compositions of the three 1967 samples are 

 identical. There is little evidence in these com- 

 parisons to suggest that there is significant 

 change in age composition during the time the 



Pacific hake are present in commercial quantities 

 off southern Washington. The paucity of samples 

 appropriate for further comparisons precludes as- 

 sessment of seasonal age composition variation 

 which may occur at other times and places. 



Latitudinal Variation 



Variation occurs in the age composition of 

 Pacific hake samples taken from different por- 

 tions of the latitudinal distribution (Nelson 1967; 

 Tillman 1968). Table 1 is adapted from Tillman's 

 table 14 to show the percentage age composition 



< 



60 

 50 

 40 

 30 

 20 

 10 

 

 90 

 80 



^ 70 

 o 



S 60 



50 



40 

 30 

 20 

 lOh 







966 



967 



Summer 



— Early 

 -- Middle 



— Late 



—I 1 1 1 1 — 



4 5 6 7 8 9 

 AGE (years) 



10 II 12 



Figure 6.-Age composition of Pacific hake collected off southern Washington (lat. 46°00'- 

 46°59'N) by early, middle, and late summer periods. 



343 



