Figure 4.— Von Bertalanffy growth curve for gindai developed from the study of daily growth 



increments. 



i I 1 i I M i i 1 1 



Figure 5.— Photomicrograph of a whole gindai sagitta show- 

 ing the development of hyaline and opaque zones and 

 distance measurements from the focus (F) to the otolith 

 margin and each ring group. 



end of August. No data were available for the 

 months of September and October. These results in- 

 dicate that the markings observed were annular and 

 that the opaque zone first began to form during 

 January-February. 



Given the apparent annual periodicity of the mark- 

 ings, growth was estimated by examining their 

 spatial pattern within the otolith. Table 3 presents 

 mean otolith radii measured to the start of each new 

 opaque zone, summarized by sampled age groups, 

 for the 29 specimens that showed well-developed 

 markings throughout their sagittae (e.g., Fig. 5). 

 The table also presents the weighted mean radii con- 

 verted to estimated FL's by using the regression 

 developed earlier (Fig. 1). 



The assembled data were then used to estimate 



Table 3. — Back-calculated lengths based on annual markings in 

 gindai otoliths. All measurements were taken along the focus to 

 postrostrum growth axis. 



