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Fishery Bulletin 105(4) 



evidence of allometric shifts in otolith dimensions for 

 pelagic and settled YOY goosefish (8.6-285 mm TL, 

 « = 60) was conducted in the same manner as described 

 above for body proportions. 



Lapilli were viewed by transmitted light with an 

 Olympus BH-2 compound microscope and Optimus 6.2 

 video imaging software (OPTIMUS Corp., Fort Collins, 

 CO) at a magnification of 1250x. Distances from the 

 primordium to each of multiple distinct marks (checks) 

 on the otolith (e.g., at hatching, yolksac absorption, 

 settlement, annulus formation) were taken along an 

 axis to the dorsal edge. Increments (which are believed 

 to be formed daily) were counted along the axis that 

 exhibited the least ambiguous sequence of increments 

 and greatest distance from the primordium to the outer 

 edge. Increment counts and location of checks were de- 

 termined twice on each otolith by a single observer. 



Although we were reasonably confident of the age es- 

 timates derived with the above approach, we attempted 

 to evaluate the precision and accuracy of our daily 

 increment counts. A subset of otoliths (n=20) from fish 

 (11-251 mm TL) were compared between the primary 

 reader (PJC) and a second reader (K. Lang, NMFS, 

 Woods Hole). The differences between readers in incre- 

 ment counts were small but increased with the size of 



the otolith from 6.5% (the interval from the hatching 

 check) to 8.8% (focus to yolk absorption), to 10.6% (focus 

 to otolith edge). 



Distribution and abundance 



Pelagic and benthic goosefish were collected on the con- 

 tinental shelf in waters from the Gulf of Maine, Georges 

 Bank, and the Middle Atlantic Bight (Table 1, Fig. lA). 

 Major sources of data for pelagic juveniles were the NMFS 

 Hydroacoustic Survey 2000 to 2001, collections from the 

 Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), and the 

 NMFS Marine Resources Monitoring, Assessment and 

 Prediction Program (MARMAP) Survey spanning from 

 1977 to 1987 (Morse et al., 1987), as well as miscellaneous 

 collections from throughout the study area. The primary 

 source for recently settled benthic individuals (;;=6731; 

 20-200 mm TL) was the historical scallop survey con- 

 ducted by NMFS (Serchuk and Wigley, 1986). 



Food habits and habitat 



Fish used for analysis of food habitats in relation to set- 

 tlement were collected from a variety of sources (Table 1). 

 Immediately after capture, whole fish were either flash 



