Fishery Bulletin 92(1). 1994 



500 



E 

 E 



c 



0) 



o 



250- 



145 72 



46 



143 



170 



168 



Age (years) 



Figure 5 



Observed lengths at age and fitted von Bertalanffy 

 regression line for Atlantic croaker from the Chesa- 

 peake Bay region (September, 1988-91). Numbers 

 above data points are sample sizes at each age. 



Despite the high variability in sizes at age, observed 

 lengths at ages 1-7 showed a very good fit to the 

 von Bertalanffy growth model (^=0.99; n=753). Esti- 

 mated model parameters, asymptotic standard errors, 

 and 95% confidence intervals are given in Table 2. 



No difference in the length-weight relationship 

 was found between sexes (ANCOVA; 7^=2.46; 

 df=3,005; P=0.15). The equation for pooled sexes 

 (Fig. 6) was 



TW = 2.41 x lO^TL 3 ' 30 (r 2 = 0.97; n = 3,006;P< 0.01). 



The slope of the regression line (6=3.30; SE=0.0141) 

 was significantly different from 3.00 (Mest; r=7.26; 

 P<0.01), indicating allometric growth. 



Size and age compositions 



Length-frequency distributions of Atlantic croaker 

 samples obtained from different fishing gears were 

 similar (Fig. 7), with the exception of commercial 

 trawl data which were dominated by fish smaller 

 than 275 mm. The smallest Atlantic croaker cap- 



