828 



Abstract.— Fishing pressure on ver- 

 milion snapper, Rhomboplites auro- 

 rubens, in the Gulf of Mexico has in- 

 creased since the mid-1970s, and popu- 

 lations are thought to be overfished. We 

 sampled 858 vermilion snapper (192- 

 585 mm TL) from the eastern Gulf of 

 Mexico during 1995 and 1996 to assess 

 their age structure, growth, mortality, 

 spawning season, size and age at ma- 

 turity, and batch fecundity. The lengths 

 of males and females in our samples 

 were not significantly different, and the 

 overall sex ratio was not significantly 

 different from 1:1. Marginal-increment 

 analysis indicated that one opaque zone 

 is formed on vermilion snapper otoliths 

 during the late spring to early summer 

 of each year Ages ranged from 1 to 13 

 years, and von Bertalanffy growth mod- 

 els for males and females were not sig- 

 nificantly different. Von Bertalanffy 

 growth model parameters were L„ = 

 298 mm TL, A'=0.25/yr, and /o=-3.9 

 years for all aged fish. Growth rates in 

 our study were lower than those in pre- 

 vious studies of Gulf of Mexico vermil- 

 ion snapper, perhaps the result of re- 

 cent changes in fishing selectivity. 

 Pooled estimates of total instantaneous 

 mortality were 0.480/yr based on rec- 

 reational landings data and 0.489/yr 

 based on commercial landings data. 

 Most females and all males examined 

 were mature. At 200 mm TL, 90% of 

 the females we examined were mature. 

 Vermilion snapper are summer spawn- 

 ers, and ripe females were caught from 

 May to September. Batch fecundity 

 ranged from 5535 to 22,81 1 oocytes and 

 was positively correlated with fish 

 weight (batch fecundity=317 x (whole 

 weight) - 3.1624 x 10^ r-' = 0.55). 



Age, growth, mortality, and reproduction of 

 vermilion snapper, Rhomboplites aurorubens, 

 from the eastern Gulf of Mexico 



Peter B. Hood 



Florida Marine Research Institute, Florida Department of Environmental Protection 

 100 Eighth Avenue S,E, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701-5095 

 Present address: Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council 



3018 U.S Highway 301 North, Suite 1000 



Tampa, Flonda 33619-2266 

 E-mail address peter hoodig^gulfcouncil org 



Andrea K. Johnson 



North Carolina State University, Department of Zoology 



Box 7617 



Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7617 



Manuscript accepted 16 November 1998. 

 Fi.sh. Bull. 97:828-841 (1999). 



The vermilion snapper, Rhombo- 

 plites aurorubens, is a small, sub- 

 tropical lutjanid that occurs from 

 North Carolina to Rio de Janeiro 

 but is most abundant off the south- 

 eastern United States and in the 

 Gulf of Campeche (Vergara, 1978). 

 In the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), ver- 

 milion snapper are usually found 

 near hard bottom areas off the west- 

 central Florida coast, the Florida 

 Middle Ground, and the Texas 

 Flower Gardens (Smith et al., 1975: 

 Smith, 1976; Nelson, 1988), Faunal 

 surveys in the South Atlantic Bight 

 (SAB) have indicated that vermil- 

 ion snapper are most common over 

 inshore live-bottom habitats and 

 over shelf-edge, rocky-rubble, and 

 rock-outcrop habitats (Grimes et al., 

 1977, 1982; Barans and Henry, 

 1984; Chester et al., 1984; Sedberry 

 and Van Dolah, 1984). 



Vermilion snapper are an impor- 

 tant component of the reef fish fish- 

 ery on the west coast of Florida, In 

 1995 and 1996, total commercial 

 landings of vermilion snapper on 

 Florida's west coast was 1,6 million 

 pounds and had an estimated dock- 

 side value of $4.5 million (Marine 

 Fisheries Information System' ). Over 

 the same period, 1.8 million vermil- 

 ion snapper were landed by anglers 



in Flonda (MRFSS2), Charter boats 

 or headboats accounted for most 

 ( 90% ) of the angler-caught fish ( Good- 

 year and Schirripa'^ ; Schirripa'*). 



The Gulf of Mexico stock of ver- 

 milion snapper is showing signs of 

 being overfished, Schirripa'* re- 

 ported in an analysis of GOM ver- 

 milion snapper landings data that 



1) overall landings were declining, 



2) the fishery was consolidating to 

 the most productive fishing areas, 



3) the mean size offish in the com- 

 mercial catch was decreasing, 4) the 

 catch per unit of effort was decreas- 



' Marine Fisheries Information System. 

 1997. Florida Department of Environ- 

 mental Protection, 100 8th Avenue S.E., 

 St. Petersburg, FL. Unpubl. data. 



^ MRFSS (Marine Recreational Fishery Sta- 

 tistics Survey). 1997. Fisheries Statis- 

 tics Division, National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, Department of Commerce, Silver 

 Springs, MD. Unpubl. data. 



' Goodyear, C. P., and M. J. Schirripa. 

 1991. A biological profile for vermilion 

 snapper with a description of the fishery 

 in the Gulf of Mexico. Miami Laboratory, 

 Southeast Fisheries Center, National Ma- 

 rine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Miami, 

 FL. Contribution rep. MIA-90/91-78. 



■* Schirripa, M. J. 1996. Statusof the ver- 

 milion snapper fishery of the Gulf of 

 Mexico: assessment 3.0. Miami Laboratory, 

 Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Natl. 

 Mar Fish. Serv., NOAA, Miami, FL. Con- 

 tribution rep. MIA-9.5/96-61. 



