REPRODUCTION OF THE BANDED DRUM, LARIMUS FASCIATUS, 



IN NORTH CAROLINA 1 



Steve W. Ross 



ABSTRACT 



The reproductive biology of Larimus fasciatus was examined in coastal North Carolina from September 1975 

 through September 1976. Spawning occurred in nearshore waters from April through Sept ember with a peak 

 in August. Maturity in fameles was reached by the first year between 120 and 130 mm SL. Generally the 

 larger, older fish matured earlier and also continued spawning later in the season than the younger ones. 

 Fecundity ranged from 12,750 to 320,819 ova with first spawners preducted to have between 31 ,088 and 

 65,038 eggs. Fecundity was best predicted by ovary weights during August. Sex ratios generally favored 

 more females. As fish grew the sex ratio changed from predominately males to predominately females. 



The banded drum, Larimus fasciatus Holbrook, 

 occurs from Massachusetts to southeastern Florida 

 and along the northern Gulf of Mexico from the 

 Florida west coast to Mexico. Unlike other drums it 

 appears to be largely restricted to nearshore coastal 

 waters at all sizes and is rarely collected in estuaries 

 or from the outer continental shelf (Gunter 1938; 

 Dahlberg 1972; Chao 1978: Powles 1980). Larimus 

 fasciatus is a small sciaenid reported by Holbrook 

 (1860) to reach 305 mm TL (total length), but it 

 seldom grows larger than 220 mm (Chao 1978). Its 

 small size, low abundance, and lack of status as a food 

 or game fish afford this species little commercial or 

 recreational value, although it was reported as a com- 

 ponent of the North Carolina (Wolff 1972) and Gulf 

 of Mexico (Gutherz et al. 1975) industrial fisheries. 



Published data on life history aspects of L. fasciatus 

 are largely lacking. Hildebrand and Cable (1934) 

 reported limited information on spawning, growth, 

 and juvenile descriptions of North Carolina 

 specimens, and Powles (1980) presented data on lar- 

 val description, spawning seasons, and areas in the 

 South Atlantic Bight. Feeding habits were briefly 

 examined by Welsh and Breder (1923) and Chao and 

 Musick (1977). Standard and Chittenden (in press) 

 have studied banded drum life history off of Texas. 



This study describes the following aspects of L. fas- 

 ciatus life history in North Carolina: 1) spawning 

 seasonality, 2) age and size at maturity, 3) fecundity, 

 and 4) sex ratios. 



METHODS 



Most banded drum were collected in the ocean near 

 the mouth of the Cape Fear River, N.C., about 4-6 km 

 off Oak Island in depths of 4-14 m (Fig. 1). Bottom 

 topography was uniform with sediments of fine sand 

 and mud. Hydrographic conditions were heavily 

 influenced by discharge from the Cape Fear River 

 (Ross 1978). 



This area was sampled weekly from September 

 1975 through September 1976, except only monthly 

 samples were made during January, June, July, and 

 August. Each sample consisted of repetitive (4-12) 

 30-min trawls with a 12.4 m semiballoon otter trawl 

 of 3.85 cm stretched mesh during daylight hours. 



Additional specimens were collected from Septem- 

 ber 1975 through September 1976 during twice month- 

 ly, daylight sampling between Beaufort Inlet and 

 Cape Lookout, N.C. (Fig. 1), except that there was 

 no sampling in December 1975 and only monthly 

 sampling in January and February 1976. Repetitive 

 trawls were made in this area in a depth range of 9-12 

 m over a flat, sand bottom using the aforementioned 

 gear and tow times. Specimens were also collected 

 near Cape Hatteras (9-17 m depth) in November and 

 December 1975 and April 1976 by the North Car- 

 olina Division of Marine Fisheries (Fig. 1). 



Larimus fasciatus were preserved in the field in 1 0% 

 Formalin 3 and later stored in 40% isopropanol. Total 

 length (TL) and standard length (SL) were measured 

 to the nearest mm. Body weights (BW) were deter- 

 mined to the nearest 0.1 g, and gonads >0.01 g were 



'Adapted from part of a thesis submitted to the Zoology Depart- 

 ment, University of North Carolina, in partial fulfillment of the 

 requirements for the MA degree. 



2 North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, P.O. Box 769. 

 Morehead City, NC 28557. 



'Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 



Manuscript accepted August 1983. 

 FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 82. NO. 1, 1984. 



227 



