Garcia-Diaz et al Spawning season, maturity sizes, and fecundity of Serronus atncauda 



165 



determinate spawners, and both the above-mentioned 

 serranids are indeterminate spawners (Garci'a-Diaz et 

 al., 1997; Garcia-Diaz, 2003). The fact that the method 

 was used for these two indeterminate spawners could 

 explain why the values of maximum fecundity obtained 

 by these authors for S. cabrllla (441,502 oocytes) and 

 S. scriba (54,649 oocytes) were lower than that for S. 

 atricauda (15,5 millions oocytes). Consequently, the 

 present study enables us to provide new reproductive 

 data for blacktail comber, where potential annual fe- 

 cundity is essential for future egg production models 

 and estimates of spawning stock biomass. 



Acknowledgments 



We wish to thank Jose Ignacio Santana for the collection 

 of samples, Antonio Valencia for his help in the building 

 of the mechanism to separate the vitellogenic oocytes, 

 Gordon Hamilton for proofreading the submission copy 

 of the manuscript, and the reviewers for their comments 

 and suggestions. 



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