progeny from a different spawning population. 

 Haven (1957) found 20-30 mm fish during April 

 and concluded the spawning season extended over 

 almost the entire year with a possible spring peak. 

 The apparent 9- or 10-mo spawning season may 

 result from little or no overwinter growth or sam- 

 pling bias due to differential size distribution or 

 trawl avoidance (Haven 1957; White and Chitten- 

 den 1977; Chao and Musick 1977). Maturity ob- 

 servations made during this study showed essen- 

 tially all adult fish spawned during August 

 through December and it is unlikely a spring 

 spawning peak would occur from the Atlantic 

 croaker population north of Cape Hatteras. 



Fecundity 



Fecundity ranged from 100,800 to 1,742,000 for 

 fish from 196 to 390 mm TL. Preliminary plots of 



fish length versus fecundity indicated a curvilinear 

 relationship and plots of fish weight and ovary 

 weight versus fecundity appeared linearly re- 

 lated. Therefore, fish length and fecundity were 

 transformed to logarithms (base 10) and least 

 squares regression lines fitted to the data by year 

 using the equation log fecundity = logo + b (log 

 length). Fish weight and ovary weight versus 

 fecundity were related by the linear regression 

 equation Y =a + bX where Y is fecundity andX is 

 either fish weight or ovary weight. Analysis of 

 variance indicated no significant (P«0.05) differ- 

 ences in variance about the regression between 

 years for each of fecundity versus length, weight 

 or ovary weight. Analysis of covariance was used 

 to test for between years differences in fecundity 

 relationship. No significant (P = 0.01) difference 

 was indicated; therefore, regression equations 

 were calculated for pooled data. Scatter diagrams 

 and fitted lines are shown in Figures 1-3. 



18 

 17 

 16 

 15 

 14 

 13 



o 

 o 



6 11 



o 



> 



Q 



Z 



o 



Figure l. — Relationship between fecun- 

 dity and total length for Atlantic croaker 

 collected in 1973 and 1974. 



10 

 9 

 8 

 7 

 6 

 5 

 4 

 3 

 2 

 1 



190 210 230 250 270 290 310 



TOTAL LENGTH imml 



330 350 



370 



193 



