290 



Abstract.— Age and growth were deter- 

 mined for the yellowedge grouper, Epm - 

 ephelus flavolimbatus, and the yellow- 

 mouth grouper, Mycteroperca interstiti- 

 alis. off Trinidad and Tobago. Age was 

 determined from cross sections of sag- 

 ittae and opaque rings were counted 

 as annuli. From the monthly variation 

 in marginal increment ratio (marginal 

 increment divided by the distance be- 

 tween the penultimate and outermost 

 annulus), rings were found to be depos- 

 ited annually from October to February 

 in the yellowedge grouper Monthly 

 variation in the frequency of otoliths 

 with an opaque margin showed that 

 opaque rings were deposited from Sep- 

 tember to January in the yellow- 

 mouth grouper Both species were found 

 to grow slowly, to have long lifespans, 

 and to achieve high asymptotic lengths. 

 Ages between 3 and 35 years (282-985 

 mm TL) were found for the yellowedge 

 grouper, for which the von Bertalanffy 

 growth equation was L, = 963 

 ( i_e-o 099if *o 08 1 ,_ where L, is length ( mm I 

 at time t (yr). Yellowmouth groupers 

 between ages 5 and 41 years (335-827 

 mm FL) were found and the von Ber- 

 talanffy growth equation was L, = 854 

 ll_e-oo57i/t4.6i, The length-weight rela- 

 tionship for the yellowedge grouper was 

 W< = 5 X lO-^TL- 80, where Wt is body 

 weight (g) and TL is total length (mm). 

 For the yellowmouth grouper this rela- 

 tionship was Wt = 1.88 y 10-^FL^^\ 

 where FL is fork length ( mm ). Both spe- 

 cies appear to grow more slowly and to 

 achieve a greater asymptotic size and 

 age than populations in higher latitudes, 

 in contrast to what was expected based 

 on differences in environmental temper- 

 ature. This may be attributed to differ- 

 ences in fishing pressure because the 

 populations in this study might have 

 been subjected to a lower level of exploi- 

 tation over a shorter period of time. 



Age and growth of the yellowedge grouper, 

 Epinephe/us flavolimbatus, 

 and the yellowmouth grouper, 

 Mycteroperca interstitialis, 

 ofJF Trinidad and Tobago 



Sherry C. Manickchand'Heileman 



Institute of Marine Affairs 

 PO Box 3160 



Carenage, Trinidad, West Indies 

 Present address: % L. Heileman 



United Nations Environment Programme 



PO. Box 47074 



Nairobi, Kenya 

 E-mail address sh_heilemani§'yahoo,com 



Dawn A. T. Phillip 



Institute of Marine Affairs 



PO Box 3160 



Carenage 



Trinidad, West Indies 



Manu.script accepted 26 November 1999. 

 Fish. Bull. 98:290-298 (2000). 



The yellowedge grouper (Epineph- 

 elus flavolimbatus) and the yel- 

 lowmouth grouper (Mycteroperca 

 interstitialis) are two large serra- 

 nids commonly caught in the trap 

 fishery off Trinidad and Tobago. 

 The yellowedge grouper has been 

 recorded from North and South Car- 

 olina (Huntsman, 1976), the Gulf 

 of Mexico, the West Indies, and the 

 north coast of South America to 

 Brazil at depths of 35-370 m ( Smith, 

 1978). The yellowmouth gi'ouper is 

 found in rocky areas from the shore- 

 line to depths of at least 55 m and 

 is distributed from Bermuda, the 

 South Atlantic Bight, the Gulf of 

 Mexico, throughout the West Indies, 

 Venezuela and Brazil ( Smith, 1978 ), 

 replacing the northern species M. 

 phenax in some areas. 



Both species are of significant com- 

 mercial value in Venezuela (Smith, 

 1971; Gonzalez and Celaya'). The 

 yellowmouth grouper is alsc com- 

 mercially exploited in Bennuda 

 (Smith, 1971) and the eastern Gulf 

 of Mexico (Bullock and Murphy, 



1994). Groupers are also of com- 

 mercial importance in Trinidad and 

 Tobago where they form part of 

 a lucrative export trade in chilled 

 fish. Yellowedge and yellowmouth 

 groupers are the most commonly 

 caught groupers in traps and are 

 also caught by handlines (Manick- 

 chand-Heileman and Phillip, 1993 ). 

 Historically, these species have been 

 fished on the continental shelf and 

 shelf edge northwest of Tobago and 

 along the north and northeastern 

 coasts of Trinidad by artisanal 

 vessels from Trinidad and Tobago, 

 as well as from Venezuela (Men- 

 doza and Larez, 1996). Due to the 

 decline in catch rates in these areas 

 (Manickchand-Heileman and Phil- 

 lip, 1993; Mendoza and Larez, 

 1996), the fishery has expanded to 



' Gonzalez, L.W., and J. Celaya. 1986. 

 Diagnostico socio-economico de la pesque- 

 ria de media altura pargo-mero del estado 

 Nueva Esparta. Contrib. 8, Centro de 

 Investigaciones Cientificas, Univ. Oriente, 

 Venezuela. 31 p. Univ. del Oriente, Apdo. 

 Postal 245, Cuniana, -Sucre. Venezuela. 



