MOKSNESS and WESPESTAD: AGE AND GROWTH OF LARVAL PACIFIC HERRING 



The range in the residuals and deviations re- 

 ported in this paper are believed to be, in part, 

 due to the use of x 400 magnification. This has 

 been shown to be too low to give good resolution 

 of the otoliths (Campana et al. 1987). 



Three general conclusions can be drawn from 

 this study: 1) Daily otolith increments in 

 Pacific herring larvae are true daily increments 

 at noi-mal rates of gi'owth. 2) The results, show- 

 ing poor correlation between length and age, 

 suggest that age in days can be estimated only 

 from dii-ect ageing and that attempts to establish 

 age from age-length relationships may produce 

 significant errors. These types of error may be 

 important in stock separation studies such as 

 distinguishing between spring and autumn 

 spawned herring (Fossum and Moksness 1988). 

 3) Mesocosms may be a more appropriate envi- 

 ronment for studying marine fish larvae and 

 juveniles than laboratory-sized rearing tanks. 

 Growth appears to be influenced by container 

 size. Mesocosms have been shown to produce 

 gi-owth rates for other species such as capelin, 

 Mallotus rillosus, similar to that observed in the 

 field (Gj0saeter and Monstad 1985). 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 



Erlend Moksness would like to acknowledge 

 Dr. Reuben Lasker for his support during the 

 author's visits to the Southwest Fisheries Cen- 

 ter to learn the technique of ageing fish by using 

 daily increments in the otohths. Reuben was a 

 pioneer in the use of daily increments to deter- 

 mine the age of larval and juvenile fishes. His 

 advice and criticism were instrumental in the 

 development of this work. 



Both authors would like to thank Technical 

 Assistant Inger Henriksen at Flodevigen Bio- 

 logical Station for reading the otoliths. Partial 

 funding for this study was provided by a grant 

 from the Norwegian Fisheries Research 

 Council. 



LITERATURE CITED 



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1988. Manual for reading daily increments by use of 

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Brothers, E. B., C. P. Mathews, and R. Lasker. 



1976. Daily growth increments in otoliths from larval 

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1987. Otolith microstructure of larval herring (Clupea 

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Fossum, P., and E. Moksness. 



1988. Distinguishing between spring and autumn 

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Geffen, A. J. 



1982. Otolith ring deposition in relation to growth rate 

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1981. Growth patterns in otohths as an indication of 

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Jones, C. 



1985. Within-season differences in growth of larval 

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1986. Determination of age of larval fish wit the otolith 

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Lough, R, G., M. Pennington. G. R. Bolz, and A. A. 

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McGurk, M. D. 



1984a. Ring deposition in the otoliths of larval Pacific 

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