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David O. Conover 



Massachusetts Cooperative Fishery Research Unit 

 Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management 

 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 

 Present address: Marine Sciences Research Center 

 State University of New York at Stony Brook 

 Stony Brook, NY 11 79 J, 



Steven A. Murawski 



Northeast Fisheries Center Woods Hole Laboratory 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 

 Woods Hole, MA 025b3 



GROWTH DURING METAMORPHOSIS OF 

 ENGLISH SOLE, PAROPHRYS VETULUS 



Among fishes, the period of transformation from 

 the larval to adult form is marked not only by 

 changes in morphology, behavior and in some 

 species, habitat (Jakobczyk 1965; Sale 1969; 

 Hoar 1976; Marliave 1977), but in growth rate as 

 well. Ontogenetic changes in growth have not 

 been well documented principally because a 



method for determining age of larvae and juve- 

 niles has not, until recently, been available. The 

 discovery of daily growth rings on otoliths has 

 made possible the precise determination of age, 

 in days, of larval and juvenile fishes (Brothers et 

 al. 1976). Changes in growth rates during differ- 

 ent life history stages which could be correlated 

 with behavioral and habitat changes were ob- 

 served in the French grunt, Haemulonflavoline- 

 atum (Brothers and MacFarland in press). 

 Struhsaker and Uchiyama (1976) observed an 

 inflection point in the age-length plot of larval 

 and juvenile nehu, Stolephorus purpureus, indi- 

 cating a change in growth rate. This inflection 

 point corresponded with the size when body 

 depth began to increase in proportion to the 

 length of the fish, but not with changes in diet or 

 habitat that occur over the course of develop- 

 ment. 



Age estimates based on counts of otolith 

 growth increments have now allowed us to de- 

 termine growth during metamorphosis of the 

 pleuronectid Parophrys vetulus Girard. 



Methods 



The results of this study are based on the stan- 

 dard length (SL) in millimeters and age in days 

 of 127 pelagic larvae and transforming individ- 

 uals of P. vetulus ranging 10-20 mm SL, and 106 

 benthic 0-age individuals from 18 to 35 mm SL. 

 Pelagic specimens were collected off Newport, 

 Oreg. (approximately lat. 44°37'N, long. 124°06' 

 W), from November 1977 through June 1978 

 with a 70 cm bongo net with 0.505 mm Nitex 1 

 mesh (see Laroche et al. 1982 for sampling de- 

 tails). Benthic P. vetulus were collected off 

 Moolach Beach, Oreg., 10 km north of Newport, 

 during September 1978 through September 

 1979 with a 1.5 m wide beam trawl (7 mm stretch 

 mesh). 



The removal and mounting of saccular otoliths 

 from larvae followed the methods outlined in 

 Methot and Kramer (1979) except that otoliths 

 were mounted on rectangular glass cover slips 

 to improve the optical properties of the prepara- 

 tion. Otolith growth increments were counted at 

 800 or 1250 X under bright-field illumination. A 

 complete description of the counting technique 

 and validation of the daily periodicity of the 

 rings can be found in Laroche et al. (1982). 



■Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by 

 the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 



150 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 80. NO. 1, 1982 



