FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 80, NO. 2 



o 



(75 



JAN FEB MAR ' APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP 



1978 I 1979 



Figure 6.— Back-calculated growth of 16 individual Parophrys vetulus from Yaquina Bay during 1978-79. 



120 



YAQUINA BAY 



& 1978 

 • 1979 



41 a 



 " * 



.'A 



m 



• V' ••• • 



.. »:- . • 



••• • • • 



160 240 320 



Age (days ) 



Figure 7.— Size-at-age data plotted by year of capture of Pa- 

 rophrys vetulus. 



in November, December, and January. As in the 

 Moolach Beach data, recruitment goes to zero in 

 the summer, but reappears in the fall among 

 Yaquina Bay fish. 



DISCUSSION 



Several previous studies have attempted to 

 estimate growth rates for English sole juveniles 

 (Table 2). For the purposes of comparison with 

 the data reported here, the total length measure- 

 ments used in other studies were converted to 



MOOLACH BEACH 



_c 



OC T NOV DEC 



1977 



JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC ' JAN FEB MAR APR MA, JUN JUL AUG SEP 



1978 '. 1979 



Monlh ot Recruitment 



Figure 8.— Distribution of Parophrys vetulus recruitment to 

 the sampled population at Moolach Beach during 1978-79. Full 

 recruitment to the sampling gear was estimated to occur at 120 

 d of age. 



standard length using the relationship given by 

 Laroche and Holton (1979). The recalculated 

 daily growth estimates from all of these other 

 studies are similar, but are substantially higher 

 than my estimated daily growth rates. Smith 

 and Nitsos (1969) and Van Cleve and El-Sayed 

 (1969) determined growth during the first year 

 of life by back calculating the size of the fish 

 when the first detectable annulus on the inter- 

 opercular bone was formed. This occurs during 

 the fish's first slow growth season, which may be 

 at various ages due to the protracted spawning 

 period of this species. Growth back calculations 

 of individual fish (Figs. 5, 6) do not show a clear 

 slow growth period during the first year. 



250 



