Wyanski et a\ : Growth, population age structure, and aspects of the reproductive biology of Epinephelus niveatus 



201 



34''N 



SS^N - 



O Longline 

 A Snapper reel 

 X^ Trawls 



Figure 1 



Approximate locations of commercial fishing effort with longlines and snapper reels for snowy 

 grouper off North Carolina and South Carolina between June 1993 and September 1994. 

 Snowy grouper were also caught in trawls in June 1978 during an exploratory squid cruise 

 conducted by the government of Spain and the National Marine Fisheries Service on the RV 

 Pescapuerta Segundo. Trawl site off Georgia is not shown. 



transverse sections according to the methods of Secor 

 et al. (1992) and examined with a compound micro- 

 scope. We counted the regular concentric rings, simi- 

 lar to those reported as daily growth increments in 

 other species, to estimate age. Assumed daily rings 

 were visible, with the exception of a large opaque 



core area, on the smallest otolith but were only dis- 

 tinguishable at discrete locations on the other two 

 otoliths. For these two otoliths, age was estimated 

 by extrapolating the increment count per unit dis- 

 tance to the total radial measurement of the ven- 

 tral axis, excluding the core. Radial measurement 



