transverse cut was made at the point of attachment 

 of the operculum, which severed the head leaving 

 some attachment of skin to the body. The head was 

 then pulled away from the body removing the gills, 

 leaving the skull clear of the gills and viseral blood. 

 When time did not permit for further processing, 

 all the heads from a day's sample were placed onto 

 a tray and frozen for later analysis. For otolith 

 removal, the head was held ventral side up and a 

 transverse cut was made into the skull at the point 

 of dorsal musculature attachment (Fig. la). A cor- 

 rect cut was sliced through the ends of the semicir- 

 cular canals containing the sagitta otolith (Fig. lb). 

 Kornegay, in 1978, described the sagitta otolith that 

 is used for age determination of the alewifa 



Each otolith was extracted with microforceps, 

 placed on absorbent paper, and rubbed lightly to 

 remove any adhering tissue. After drying, otoliths 



were placed in depressions in black Plexiglas^ trays 

 and covered with Permount (see Libby 1982). 

 Williams and Bedford (1974) described the growth 

 and collection of otoliths and interpretation of otolith 

 annuli in general. The Atlantic herring, Clupea 

 harengus, otolith which is similar to the alewife 

 otolith, was described by Watson (1964). He reported 

 on the high validity of its use for aging and the high 

 reproducibility of readings between readers. 



Scales and otoliths were collected from 536 fish. 

 Thirty-one fish were discarded because the otoliths 

 or scales were unreadable or the shape of the otolith 

 revealed that the fish was a blueback, A. aestivalis. 

 Price (1978) explained the difference in otolith mor- 

 phology between the two species. A final count of 



^Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service^ NOAA. 



Figure 1.— a) Ventral side of head of Alosa 

 pseudoharengtis. Dark line shows muscula- 

 ture attachment to the skull where transverse 

 cut is made b) Section of skull cut away 

 showing posterior ends of the semicircular 

 canals containing the sagitta otoliths. 



697 



