GREELEY ET AL.: STRIPED MULLET OVARY 



During November, December, and January, a few 

 larger females with LODs less than the minimum 

 0.18 mm vitellogenic size were collected from the 

 Inlet. This suggested that seasonal ovarian recrudes- 

 cence does not occur in all large females every year. 

 However, other criteria (see below) indicated that 

 these were actually postspawn ovaries. 



Minimum female size at maturity by the end of 

 the season ranged from 23 to nearly 27 cm SL. 

 Three size-categories of females can now be recog- 

 nized: 1) those smaller than 23 cm SL that are ob- 

 ligatory immatures; 2) those 23 to 27 cm SL that 

 may enter into maturity before the end of the 

 spawning season; and 3) those larger than 27 cm SL 



that are always sexually mature sometime during 

 the spawning season. The minimum body size at sex- 

 ual maturity can also be expressed as a function of 

 fork length (27 to 31 cm) or body weight (232 to 383 

 g) with the use of the equations provided in Figure 

 5. 



Ovary Stages 



LODs are useful criteria for following the course 

 of ovarian recrudescence in the striped mullet and 

 for determining the size or age of females at sexual 

 maturity. Yet the LOD by itself cannot distinguish 

 between sexually immature and postspawn females, 



a> 



X 



Q 

 O 



m 



2000i 



500- 



^ 1000 



500 







BW = 0.0I3(SL)^'26 

 r2=0.97 



—^^ — I 1 1 1 — — I — 



20 25 30 35 40 



STANDARD LENGTH (cm) 



45 



50 



E 

 o 



X 

 I- 



o 



z 



LU 



o 



50 



45- 

 40- 

 35- 

 30 

 25-1 

 20 

 



B 



K 



FL=l.ll2(SL) + 0.950 

 r2 = 0.99 



^/^ — I — 



20 



25 30 35 40 45 



STANDARD LENGTH (cm) 



— I 

 50 



Figure 5.— Relationship of (A) body weight 

 and (B) fork length to the standard length 

 of female Mugil cephaliis (>20 cm SL) dur- 

 ing prespawning ovarian recrudescence 

 along the northeast Florida coast. Lines 

 were fitted by least squares regression. 



193 



