Nelson: Age, growth; mortality, and distribution ol Lagodon ihomboides 



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1 ' longitude grids. At each site, gears were deployed 

 with standardized procedures (see Nelson [1998] and 

 Tremain and Adams [1995] for detailed description 

 of the survey design and deployment techniques). 

 Selected individuals were immediately placed on ice 

 for transport and frozen whole at the laboratory. 



Pinfish from the Gulf of Mexico were collected 

 primarily during a bottom-trawl survey conducted 

 in spring in the Gulf of Mexico to document baitfish 

 abundance and distribution. The Gulf trawl sui-vey 

 was conducted during April from 1994 to 1997 at 

 stations randomly selected along line transects ran- 

 domly placed perpendicular to the west coast of the 

 Florida peninsula adjacent to Tampa Bay. At each 

 station, a 19.8-m, 254-mm stretched-mesh modified 

 ballon trawl with 25.4-mm codend liner and 2.2-m^ 

 China V-doors was towed at approximately 3 knots for 

 30 min during daylight hours in depths ranging be- 

 tween 6 and 31 m. At each station, trawl catches were 

 sorted by species, counted, weighed collectively, and 

 50 individuals per haul were measured to the nearest 

 1 mm fork length (see Pierce and Mahmoudi (20011) 

 for a detailed description of the survey design). Depth 

 (m) at the start and end of the trawl tow and surface 

 salinity and temperature were recorded at all stations. 

 To match data collected from the Tampa Bay samples, all 

 length data were converted to standard length by using 

 conversion equations derived from this study. Individual 

 fish were immediately frozen whole and returned to the 



30 N 



Figure 1 



Maps of Florida showing study area. 



laboratory. Occasionally, supplemental samples were col- 

 lected by hook-and-line fishing in Tampa Bay and the 

 offshore waters (Table 1). 



In the laboratory, standard length (SL ±1 mm), fork 

 length (FL ±1 mm), total length (TL ±1 mm) and total 



