McDonough and Wenner: Growth, recruitment, and abundance of |uvenile Mugil cephalus 



353 



30 



25 



20- 



15 



10 



n 



30- 



25 - 



20 



15 



10- 



5 - 



lO- 



AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL 



B 



AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL 

 Month 



Figure 11 



Percent frequency of births per month for striped mullet from the juvenile aging 

 study (A) (n= 335) and the historical surveys (B) (n=5498). 



mean lengths of young-of-the-year striped mullet also re- 

 mained relatively constant from December to June, indicat- 

 ing an even more protracted period of juvenile recruitment 

 than in either North or South Carolina (Rogers et al., 1984). 

 Recruitment in Florida also appeared to occur over a much 

 broader time scale than that for the Carolinas; newly re- 

 cruited juveniles occurred from December to June (Kilby, 

 1949; Anderson, 1958). The longer recruitment season seen 

 in the southern portion of the South Atlantic Bight may 

 be due to faster onshore transport of striped mullet larvae 

 and juveniles, proximity to the spawning grounds, i.e. the 



continental shelf, or a longer spawning season resulting 

 from warmer temperatures. 



Age validation 



Otoliths form a permanent record of growth in juvenile 

 fishes and can be an important "barometer" of growth and 

 the conditions under which it occurred. Radtke ( 1984) vali- 

 dated daily growth increments in striped mullet juveniles 

 from Hawaii using hatchery-reared fish. The primary dif- 

 ference in our study was the use of wild-caught juveniles 



