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Fishery Bulletin 101(1) 



age 9 but is much reduceci in age cohorts beyond 9 years of 

 age. Parameters of the VBGF are li.sted in Table 3. FL-at- 

 age of P. multich'ns was not significantly different between 

 sexes (log-likelihood=0.9836, test statistic=1.001, P>0.05; 

 no significant differences were found among parameters of 

 the VBGF; see also Fig. 7). Generalized VBGFs of P. multi- 

 dens from previous studies were compared to that derived 

 from our study (Fig. 8). 



The maximum observed age of P. multidcns in the Kim- 

 berley region was 30 years. Given that the P. multidcns 

 resource in the Kimberley region has been exploited lor 

 over 20 years, it is possible that in an unfished population 

 the longevity of P. multidcns may be closer to 40 years. 



These two estimates of maximum age in P. multidens were 

 applied to the Hoenig (19831 equation in order to derive 

 an estimate of M. Consequently, M was considered to be 

 in the range of 0. 104-0. 139, representing an annual survi- 

 vorship of 87-90'^f for an unfished population. This range 

 of M estimates for P. multidcns is similar to that observed 

 for other long-lived lutjanid species in the Indo-Pacific 

 region (Newman et al., 1996, Newman et al., 2000a; New- 

 man and Dunk, 2002). 



The longevity of female and male P. multidens was 

 somewhat similar at 27 and 30 years, respectively. The 

 age structures of P. multidens in the commercial catch 

 differed among years. The 1995 sample had a peak in year 



