Newman and Dunk: Age validation, growth, mortality, and additional population parameters of Phstipomoides multidens 



127 



(1992) reported that fishing mortahty rates above 2/3 M 

 are often associated with stock decHnes, whereas fishing 

 mortahty rates below this level have resulted in stock re- 

 covery. Consequently, exploitation rates for long-lived reef 

 fishes need to be very conservative. 



The declines evident in the length and weight of fish in 

 the landed catch over the duration of our study support 

 the finding of the high levels of F. These data support the 

 estimates of the annual percentage removals that indicate 

 that the NDSF population of P. multidens is currently 

 exploited above optimum levels. The age structure of the 

 P. multiderjs stock within the NDSF currently consists of 

 close to 30 age classes (ages 2 to 30 years). Therefore, de- 

 pletion of the spawning stock biomass of these fishes will 

 result in long population recovery times and the economic 

 loss associated with recovering and rebuilding these fish- 

 eries may persist longer A minimum of 30 years would 

 be required for the fished population to recover in terms 

 of both virgin spawner biomass and age structure. The 

 results of our study provide the basis for a more detailed 

 age-structured stock assessment for this species. 



Acknowledgments 



The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the 

 Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) 

 for this project. This work was undertaken as part of 

 FRDC Project 97/136. The comments and suggestions 

 of Rod Lenanton and Jim Penn and three anonymous 

 reviewers contributed gi'eatly to this manuscript. Logis- 

 tical support was provided by the Department of Fisher- 

 ies, Government of Western Australia. The authors are 

 thankful to the fishermen of the NDSF for the provision 

 of samples and to the fish wholesalers of Perth (Attadale 

 Seafoods Pty Ltd., Kailis Bros., New West Foods [W.A.I 

 Pty. Ltd., Festival Fish Wholesalers) and Broome (Fortes- 

 cue Seafoods) for access to specimens from northwestern 

 Australia. Jerry Jenke provided invaluable support in all 

 areas, Richard Steckis was responsible for maintaining 

 the databases used for this project, and Peta Williamson 

 assisted with the development of the figures. 



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