220 



Fishery Bulletin 88(1). 1990 



counts (544-621) roughly equivalent to 1.5 years, and 

 those with three check marks had increment counts 

 (853-937) roughly equivalent to 2.5 years (Table 2). In 

 July, sagittae of age-1 and -2 fish appeared to have two 

 and three translucent zones, respectively. The outer 

 translucent zone probably was due to thinness at the 

 edge of the sagittae. Another possibility is that the 



opaque zone formed over a short period (<2 months) 

 and formed internally in the translucent zone so that 

 the outer edge was opaque for only a brief period. This 

 has also been observed ior Am mod ytet^ tohianus (Reay 

 1972). Regardless, the result would be an overestima- 

 tion of age for part of the year if fish were sampled 

 prior to the spawning season. 



