Prince et al.: Otolith analysis of Makaira nigricans age and growth 



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100 200 300 400 500 



TOTAL INCREMENT COUNT (DAYS) 



20 40 60 80 



ROUND WEIGHT (kg) 



100 



40 80 120 160 200 



LOWER JAW FORK LENGTH (cm) 



Figure 7 



Relationship between average percent error (APE) and 

 (A) total increment count (days), (B) round weight (kg), 

 and (C) lower jaw fork length (cm) for 77 juvenile and 

 young adult/adult Atlantic blue marlin Makaira nigri- 

 cans. Horizontal line indicates mean APE for all 

 samples. 



marlin >140cm (Figs. 8B,C, respectively) are given by 

 the allometric equations 



males: 

 lnW= -12.568 + 3.1583 (In LJFL);i? 2 = 0.87 (6) 



females: 

 lnW= -13.121 + 3.2734 (In LJFL);R 2 = 0.92. (7) 



Covariance analysis indicated that the slopes of 



200 240 280 320 

 LOWER JAW FORK LENGTH (cm) 



Figure 8 



Length-weight relationships for (A) male, female, and un- 

 known-sex juvenile and young adult/adult Atlantic blue marlin 

 Makaira nigricans, (B) mature male (> 140-277 cm long), and 

 (C) mature female (> 140-369 cm long). Sample sizes are 28 

 for (A), 1969 for (B). and 3260 for (C). 



length-weight regressions for male and female blue 

 marlin in the common length range of 140-277 cm were 

 significantly different (P 0.0001). 



Growth 



Observed and estimated length and weight-at-age are 

 shown in Table 1, and all length-at-age data are shown 



