780 



Fishery Bulletin 97(4), 1999 



fairly typical age structure, peak absolute consump- 

 tion of prey occurred between age 2 and age 3 with a 

 second peak at age 6 (Fig. 2). In 1995, when age struc- 

 ture was dominated by the 1989 year class, peak 

 predatory impact occurred in fish that were six years 

 of age (Table 1; Fig. 3). Therefore, much interannual 

 variation in the age classes at which the peak preda- 

 tory impact occurs should be expected in bluefish. 



Comparison of biomass consumed by bluefish with 

 that harvested by fisheries 



The bluefish VPA biomass estimates from 1982 to 

 1995 ranged from a low of 124,024 metric tons (t) in 

 1995 to a high of 328,864 t in 1986 with an average 

 stock size of 233,309 1 for this period (NEFSC^). Given 

 a Q/B estimate of 7.7, the minimum-size bluefish 



