Hood and Johnson: Life history of Pagrus pagivs 



729 



for the headboat fishery, 0.62 for the recreational fishery, 

 and 0.54 for tlie commercial fishery. 



Reproduction 



Red porgy are protogynous hermaphrodites. We classified 

 68 males (8% of the sexed fish) as transitional-sex-stage 

 fish because of the simultaneous presence of deteriorating 

 ovarian tissue and proliferating male tissue. We deter- 

 mined that the gonadal structure was delimited (Sadovy 

 and Shapiro, 1987) because connective tissue separated 

 testicular from ovarian tissue. Sex ratios and length 

 and age data were consistent with monandric protogyny. 

 The overall sex ratio of males to females was 1.0:1.6, 

 which was significantly different from 1:1, X"=51.0, df=l, 

 P<0.001). In addition, the modal length class and age of 

 females (301-325 mm; 4 jr) were less than the modal 

 length class and age of males (326-350 mm; 5 yr; Table 

 3). We also did not obsei-ve any males less than 298 mm, 

 whereas the smallest female was 194 mm. The estimated 

 age and length at which 50% of fish in our samples were 

 males were 5.3 years and 345.5 mm (Table 2). 



Few immature female (;i = 10) red porgies were obsei-ved 

 in our samples. We did not find any age-1 (n-&) immature 

 female red porgy, and most age-2 (91%. ;!=55) and age-3 

 (96%, n=99) females were sexually mature. All females age 

 4 or older were sexually mature. Immature females ranged 

 in length from 194 to 302 mm and the smallest mature 

 female was 230 mm. More than half (69%) of the fish 

 observed were mature by the length class 226-250 mm 



Red porgy in the eastern GOM spawn from December 

 to April. During this time period, ovaries containing either 

 mature oocytes (spawning is imminent) or postovulatory 

 follicles (spawning has recently occurred) vyere obsei-ved 

 (Fig. 5). Throughout the rest of the year, ovaries pro- 

 gi'essed from containing only primary gi'owth oocytes ( May 

 to August) to containing cortical alveoli and vitellogenic 

 oocytes (September to November; Fig. 5). Ripe males were 

 obsei-\'ed in every month except July and September (Fig. 

 6). Immature (transitional-sex-stage) males were captured 

 throughout most of the year, but they were absent or rare 

 just prior to and during the spawning season (November 

 to April). For both sexes, median GSI's were low from 

 May to October (<0.015 for females and <0.005 for males: 

 Fig. 7). In January, median GSI's increased dramatically 

 (0.035 for females and 0.019 for males) and then gradually 

 decreased through August. 



Discussion 





0.15 

 0.10 

 0.05 

 000 



A 



Ages 8-10 



J F M A M 



—\ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 



J JASONDJ 



t\/lonth 



Figure 3 



Marginal increments from sectioned otoliths of red porgy 

 ages 2-10 years from the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Median 

 monthly increments are identified by the solid line. Because 

 of low sample sizes, ages 8-10 were pooled. 



Collections 



There appeared to be a trend towards smaller red porgy 

 in the GOM from the 1980s to the 1990s. Although land- 

 ings have not increased since the early 1980s (Gulf-wide 

 average annual landings of approximately 250,000 lbs; 

 [Goodyear and Thompson^)), the length structure of the 

 population has changed. Between 1990 and 1992. modal 



lengths of commercially caught fish have decreased from 

 357 mm to 279 mm for fish landed in Florida and from 

 381 mm to 254 mm for fish landed in Louisiana and Texas 

 (Goodyear and Thompson^. In addition, there has been a 

 decline from 508 mm to 381 mm in the maximum length of 

 fish caught from headboats during 1979-91 (Goodyear and 



