White et al : Reproductive seasonality, fecundity, and spawning frequency of Tautoga onitis 



441 



the northern regions of the species range should be pur- 

 sued to determine if tautog annual fecundity varies with 

 latitude. Evidence of different growth rates (Cooper, 1965, 

 1966, 1967; Stolgitis, 1970; Hostetter and Munroe,1993; 

 White, 1996), seasonality of occurrence in coastal waters, 

 and winter activity cycles between tautog in southern 

 versus northern regions (011a et al., 1974; Hostetter and 

 Munroe, 1993; Arendt et al., 2001a, 2001b) strongly point 

 to considering latitudinal effects when analyzing and com- 

 paring any biological features of this species. Even if batch 

 fecundity and spawning frequency remain relatively con- 

 stant over latitude, size structure of the stock will dictate 

 estimates of total egg production: thus continued research 

 is necessary to monitor size structure and abundance of 

 tautog resources throughout the species range. Additional 

 data on larger, older females is necessary to evaluate the 

 relative contribution of older females to population fecun- 

 dity and egg production. Because many aspects of tautog 

 life history affect recruitment, further investigation is re- 

 quired on egg dispersal, egg mortality, larval drift, larval 

 mortality, hatching success, first feeding success, pre- and 

 postsettlement mortality, juvenile mortality, recruitment, 

 stock structure, and spawning stock biomass (ASMFC"*). 



Historically, tautog have supported a predominantly 

 (90%) recreational fishery throughout their range 

 (ASMFC^). Over the past 15 years, this popular food and 

 sport fish has increased substantially in value as a com- 

 mercially targeted species. As popularity and fishing effort 

 increased, landings peaked in 1993 but have declined more 

 recently, prompting the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

 Commission (ASMFC"*) to pass a coastwide management 

 plan for tautog in April 1996. 



Tautog annual fecundity is a key piece of data neces- 

 sary for egg production models and estimates of spawning 

 stock biomass. and there are no reliable estimates of tautog 

 spawning stock biomass to date (ASMFC''). In April 1998, 

 the ASMFC imposed a 14-inch (350-mm) minimum size 

 limit, effective for tautog caught from Massachusetts to 

 Virginia. The benefits of instituting a size limit for tautog 

 are well supported by data from this study. A minimum size 

 limit allows tautog in the southern regions of the species' 

 distribution to have at least one spawning season, and 

 most likely two, thereby affording the opportunity for each 

 female to contribute on average 3.22 million eggs (calcu- 

 lated from the linear regression equation. Fig. 8) towards 

 the annual population fecundity. 



Acknowledgments 



The authors gratefully acknowledge suggestions and criti- 

 cisms of three anonymous reviewers that greatly improved 

 the manuscript. We thank all of those who made this 

 research possible. This study represents part of a M.S. 

 thesis (by G. G. Wliite) School of Marine Science, Virginia 



" ASMFC (Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission). 1996. 

 Fishery management plan for tautog. Fish. Manage. Rep. 25, 

 56 p. Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, 1444 Eye 

 Street, NW, 6"> Floor, Washington, DC 20005. 



Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), College of William and 

 Mary. VIMS volunteers who assisted with our sampling 

 efforts included D. Estes, R. Holmquist, D. Seaver, and M. 

 Wagner, members of the Juvenile Finfish Trawl Survey, 

 and T. Holden, who collected specimens. We appreciate the 

 interest and cooperation of recreational and commercial 

 fishermen, especially "Old Joe," Clark and Chester Stultz, 

 who provided fish, For help processing samples, we thank J. 

 Brust, W. Coles, C. Cooksey, S. Gaichas, J. Harding, and M. 

 Wagner (taug circles). We thank C. Bonzek and R. Harris 

 for computing assistance, D. Evans, R. Diaz, and L. Gar- 

 rison for statistical help, and J. Harding for critical edito- 

 rial reviews of an earlier draft of the manuscript. We also 

 thank R Blake for training in histology procedures, and W. 

 Vogelbein for aid with interpretation of histology sections. 

 Finally G. White thanks his parents, who had the foresight 

 to get him "'hooked on" life in, on, or under water while very 

 young. This project was funded by grant numbers RF-94-5 

 and RF-95-3 from the Virginia Marine Resources Commis- 

 sion, Recreational Saltwater License Fees. 



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