30 



Fishery Bulletin 100(1) 



B 



Figure 2 



(A) Sectioned sagitta from a 1-year-old (363-mni-FL) permit. Ti-achinotus falcatiis. 

 collected in the Florida Keys on 27 Fet^ruary 1995. showing the location of the core 

 (white arrow! and the first annulus (black arrow). Scale bar = 200 microns. (B) Sec- 

 tioned sagitta from a 23-year-old male permit (781-mm-FL) collected in the Florida 

 Keys on 4 June 1996. Scale bar = 500 m. 



reached, suggesting that we misclassified few gonads with 

 regression. 



Spawning seasonality 



Permit spawning appeared to be seasonal in the areas 

 we sampled and occurred at least during May^uly. We 



examined 15 permit ovaries that contained either oocytes 

 in the final stages of maturation or POFs, structures 

 indicative of imminent or recent (<24 h) spawning. We 

 usually did not know the time of day when fish were 

 caught, but all fish were captured during daylight hours 

 (0700-1700 h). Oocytes in the final stages of maturation 

 were found during June and July, and POFs were found 



