LENGTH-WEIGHT RELATIONSHIPS FOR GULF 



FLOUNDER, PARALICHTHYS ALBIGUTTA, 



FROM NORTH CAROLINA 



Ginsburg (1952) resolved that the gulf flounder, 

 Paralichthys albigutta, ranging from North Carolina 

 to Laguna Madre, TX (Topp and Hoff 1972; Hoese 

 and Moore 1977; Robins and Ray 1986), was aPara- 

 lichthys. Topp and Hoff (1972) summarized the 

 many distributional records known throughout its 

 range. Other than keys to the species of Paralich- 

 thys (Gutherz 1967), much of the biology of the gulf 

 flounder remains unknown even though it abounds 

 east of the Mobile Bay system (Joseph and Yerger 

 1956; Topp and Hoff, 1972; Shipp 1986). 



Some researchers cite a 390 mm (total length, TL) 

 Cedar Key, FL specimen (Jordan and Swain 1885) 

 as the largest size attained by the gulf flounder 

 (Hoese and Moore 1977; Robins et al. 1986). Vick 

 (1964) noted a 710 mm, 5 kg, specimen in the sport 

 fishery off Panama City, FL but did not furnish data 

 on specimens larger than 380 mm TL. 



We present length-weight regression data for 

 North Carolina gulf flounder from 263 to 673 mm 

 TL and 318 to 3,706 g. 



Methods 



Since 1975, 75 gulf flounder were speared while 

 scuba diving along the Cape Lookout rock jetty (13 



km east) and the artificial fishing reef (3 km SE) off 

 Morehead City, NC. Most dives occurred in Novem- 

 ber and December, when P. albigutta and other 

 paralichthids congregated in nearshore ocean 

 waters off Carteret County, NC prior to their off- 

 shore spawning migration. Specimens were weighed 

 to the nearest gram on beam balances and meas- 

 ured (total length) in millimeters within hours of 

 capture. 



Observations 



While gulf flounder are not abundant in North 

 Carolina (Schwartz et al. 1979, 1982), they are cap- 

 tured by hook and line or spear fishermen when the 

 fish frequent high saline nearshore ocean waters or 

 inlets (Schwartz 1979, 1982). Species of Paralich- 

 thys can usually be separated from each other by 

 the number of gill rakers on the lower first gill arch, 

 fin ray count, spotting, body width, salinity prefer- 

 ence, and depth distribution preference (Gutherz 

 1967). Gulf flounder possess 9-12 (usually 10-11) gill 

 rakers on the lower first arch, 53-63 anal rays, and 

 three prominent ocellated spots arranged in a tri- 

 angular pattern. North Carolina gulf flounder had 

 9-13 gill rakers on the lower first arch (65 speci- 

 mens) and 54-67 anal fin rays. Complete anal rays 

 were not counted in 17 specimens. 



Gulf flounders caught consisted of 13 males and 

 62 females. Males ranged from 310 to 426 mm TL 



260 



300 



340 380 420 460 500 540 



Total length (TL) mm 



580 



620 



660 



700 



Figure 1.— Length-weight relationship for gulf flounders, Paralichythys albigutta, from North Carolina. Asterisk represents Vick's 



specimen. 



832 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 86, NO. 4, 1988. 



