210 



Fishery Bulletin 98(1) 



tive stage of individual fish was not determined, it was 

 noted that milt flowed freely from males in a collection 

 of 420 fish from a depth of 278 m off South Carolina 

 (32°57' to 33°02'N). Nearly all of the specimens were 

 sexually mature as the mean lengths of subsamples 

 collected off" North Carolina and off South Carolina 

 and Georgia combined were 67.3 (48-96 cm; rt=89) and 

 79.2 (60-97 cm; n=98), respectively. 



Depth distribution 



There was a moderately positive trend (r^=0.53) be- 

 tween water depth and total length in fishery-inde- 

 pendent samples. Snowy grouper were caught at 

 depths of 46-258 m. Larger adults were caught more 

 frequently in upper continental slope waters >100 m, 



X! 



e 



\ I = Immature 



y^ = Developing, npe 



or spent 

 ^^B = Resting 



60 

 Total length (cm) 



Figure 8 



A comparison of length-frequency histograms for snowy 

 grouper specimens collected during 1973-95 that were cat- 

 egorized as immature (« = 166), definitely mature (n = 158l, 

 or resting ( n = 130l. Definitely mature specimens were devel- 

 oping, ripe, or spent. 



whereas small adults and juveniles (<600 mm) were 

 caught more frequently at depths <100 m (Fig. 11). 



