34 



Fishery Bulletin 100(1) 



year round suggesting a prolonged spawning period. Oth- 

 er carangids spawn during spring and summer: Caranx 

 tgnobilis and Caranx melampygus spawn during May-Au- 

 gust in Hawaii (Sudekum et al., 1991) and T. carolinus 

 spawns during January-August in Florida (Hood et al.-^). 

 Our data suggest that maturation occurs at greater 

 lengths than assumed by Armstrong et al.-; however, even 

 using our maturation data, their observation that most 

 permit landed are sexually immature remains true. With 

 the current selectivity of the fishery, permit spawning 

 stock biomass could decrease quickly in response to mod- 

 erate levels of fishing mortality; thus, the regulations in 

 place in Florida to restrict harvest levels appear to be jus- 

 tified. Significantly better estimates of the magnitude and 

 age structure of the catch would be required to complete a 

 comprehensive age-structured stock assessment. 



Acknowledgments 



We thank Capt. J. C. Wells, who provided us with most 

 of the permit examined in this study and whose efforts 

 made this work possible, and Don DeMaria, who also pro- 

 vided specimens. We thank John Swanson, Bill Gibbs, and 

 the staff at the Keys Marine Laboratory for their assis- 

 tance; Jim Colvocoresses, John Hunt, and others at the 

 South Florida Regional Laboratory for their cooperation; 

 and David Harshany, Heather Patterson, Dan Merryman, 

 Graham Gerdeman, and Connie Stevens for their assis- 

 tance. We also thank Jim Colvocoresses, Rich McBride, 

 Jim Quinn, Judy Leiby, and Llyn French for helpful com- 

 ments on the manuscript. This work was supported in part 

 under funding from the Department of the Interior, U.S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Aid for Sportfish Resto- 

 ration F-59. 



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