Hood and Johnson: Life history of Rhomboplites aurorubens 



839 



et al. (1996; 4000 to 90,000 oocytes from fish 186- 

 340 mm TL). 



Summary 



Recent stock assessments of vermilion snapper sug- 

 gest that vermilion snapper stocks in the GOM are 

 overfished (Schirripa''). Our study, when compared 

 to previous studies of vermilion snapper, suggests 

 that size-selective mortality coupled with overfish- 

 ing may be responsible for changes in life history 

 parameters (decreases in the mean length at age, 

 estimated L^, and length and age of maturation). If 

 these changes are not taken into consideration, esti- 

 mates of the yield-per-recruit, mortality, and spawn- 

 ing potential ratios that use the above life history 

 parameters in their calculations could be biased. 

 Consequently, erroneous conclusions about the health 

 of the stock of GOM vermilion snapper could be made 

 in future stock assessments. 



Acknowledgments 



We thank the owners, staff, clients, and especially 

 Capt. Ed Thompson of Hubbard's Marina for their 

 assistance in obtaining samples from recreationally 

 caught fish. We thank Captain's Finest Seafood, 

 Dick's Seafood, Fishin' Inc., Holiday Seafood, and 

 Nachman's Native Seafood for their assistance in 

 sampling the commercial fishery. We thank Lew 

 Bullock, Eric Eaton, Dave Harshany, Dan Merryman, 

 Christy Meyers, Heather Patterson, Fred Stengard, 

 and Connie Stevens for their assistance in collecting 

 and processing samples. We thank Barbara Purich 

 and the staff of the Pathology Laboratory, College of 

 Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, for their 

 assistance in the histological preparation of gonad 

 samples. We thank Mike Murphy for his assistance 

 in the data analyses of age, growth, and mortality. 

 We thank Luis Barbieri, Roy Crabtree, Mike Murphy, 

 Dana Winkelman, and two anonymous reviewers for 

 providing valuable editorial assistance for this pa- 



