FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 80. NO. 1 



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SPRING 1974 



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Figure 5.— Index of relative abundance for tomtates by depth 

 zone during four seasons O'uveniles above the axis, adults be- 

 low: fraction numerator = number of trawls with tomtates- 

 denominator = total number of trawls in depth zone). 



higher temperature intervals (Fig. 6). Young 

 tomtates (20-63 mm) have previously been col- 

 lected during December in the Florida Keys at a 

 water temperature of 16.2°C (Springer and 

 Woodburn 1960). During summer (1975) juve- 

 niles were collected only in the coolest thermal 

 zone (24.0°-27.9°C), while during spring (1974) 

 both juveniles and adults were collected in the 

 same thermal interval (16.0°-23.9°C). 



^°o mt ^ te t may avoid water temperatures of 

 <10 L. b ish were never caught at <10 3°C dur- 

 ing any season, even at five sponge-coral stations 

 in areas where large numbers were caught at 

 >10°C during the previous winter (Fig. 7). 



10 



SUMMER 1975 



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FISH LENGTH(cm) 



Figure 6. -Length-frequency distributions (TL) of tomtates 

 by bottom water temperature interval (4°C). 



Age and Growth 



Validity of Rings as Annuli 



Both scales and otoliths were used to age tom- 

 tates. Approximately 75% (397 of 529) of the scale 

 samples and 85% (177 of 208) of the otoliths were 

 legible. Since tomtates have been aged by read- 

 ing scales (Sokolova 1969), we did not try spe- 

 cifically to validate the methods presented here. 

 Several findings, however, pursuant to the goals 

 of this paper, indicate that rings on tomtate 

 scales and otoliths are true annuli. Close exami- 

 nation of otoliths from young-of-year tomtates, 

 collected by trawl, clearly show the formation of 

 one ring per year, and that the first ring (annu- 

 lus) forms between the fall and spring collection 

 periods. 



The mean length of fish progressively in- 

 creased as the number of scale or otolith rings 

 increased and otoliths and scales agreed closely 

 (Table 7). For instance, if aged by scales, age-I 

 fish averaged 135.4 mm TL; age-II, 181.9; age- 

 Ill, 203.3; age-IV, 220.0; age-V, 234.5; age- VI 

 255.7; and age- VII, 265.8. If aged by otoliths,' 

 age-I fish averaged 134.3 mm TL; age-II, 164.7; 



