688 



Fishery Bulletin 97(3), 1999 



that otoliths collected from fish sampled from south- 

 em California to British Columbia show distinct growth 

 patterns, indicating little large-scale movement. 



One of the best applications of the anomalous 1983 

 annulus is its use as a chronological marker to im- 

 prove the accuracy of assigned ages, thus increasing 

 the veracity of age-structured models used in stock 

 assessments (MacLellan and Saunders, 1995). Al- 

 though the narrow 1983 annuli was most pronounced 

 ctn young fish at the time of the event, the ring was 

 easily discerned from older fish when their otoliths 

 were broken, burnt, and viewed with reflected light. 

 Therefore, it could be used for decades to aid in the 

 accurate determination of ages of fish born prior to 

 1983 (Boehlert et al., 1989). 



Although the poor environmental conditions present 

 during 1983 appeared to have detrimental effects on 

 the growth of widow and yellowtail rockfish, the ef- 

 fects were short-lived as noted in the increased otolith 

 growth the following years, especially for yellowtail 

 rockfish. As these fish are long-lived (for decades), 

 they have the capacity to absorb occasional years of 

 lower productivity without permanent detrimental 

 effects on the population. 



Acknowledgments 



Above all, thanks must go to Steve Ralston, whose 

 patience and advice have been extremely valuable. 

 Bill Lenarz, Jim Bence, and Alec MacCall provided 

 research direction. Brian Jarvis and Don Pearson 

 supplied the otoliths used in this study. Don Pearson 

 also allowed me the use of his image enhancement 

 equipment. Kenneth Baltz supplied the oceano- 

 graphic data. 1 am grateful to Steve Ralston, Mickey 

 Eldridge, Pete Adams, and two anonymous peer reviews 

 for their critiques of earlier drafts of this manuscript. 



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