FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO. 3 



stages from yolk vesicle formation (Wallace and 

 Selman 1981) through late vitellogenesis. Oocytes 

 (500-740 nm in diameter) in ripe ovaries showed 

 coalescence of yolk globules and hydration. Gonads 

 from spent and resting females contained decreas- 

 ing amounts of unspawned, atretic oocytes and 

 empty, ruptured follicles. 



Gonads from immature males were characterized 

 by primary and secondary spermatogonia (Fig. 7C), 

 and isolated, more fully developed seminiferous 

 crypts in some instances. In developing testes we 

 saw several stages that included gonadal tissue com- 

 posed mostly of primary and secondary spermato- 

 cytes, as well as sperm sinuses filled with mature 

 spermatozoa. Ripe testes had sperm sinuses and 

 ducts packed with spermatozoa; the remainder of 

 the gonad showed only a little spermatogenesis. 

 Spent testes showed both the lack of spermatogenic 

 activity and the presence of large amounts of unshed 

 sperm, whereas gonads in resting males showed 

 mitotic proliferation of next season's spermatogonia 

 and interstitial tissues. 



Females comprised 52% of the sexed C. striata 

 and were mature in ages 1 through 8. We found 

 mature gonads in none of the females at age 0, 

 48.4% at age 1, 90.3% at age 2, 99.1% at age 3, and 

 100% at all older ages. Immature females were 

 50-180 mm SL, and the smallest mature specimen 

 was 110 mm SL. Males made up 30.6% of the fishes 

 sexed, and 1.3% of these males were immature and 

 were in ages 0-1 with lengths of 50-180 mm SL. The 

 smallest mature male was 100 mm SL. 



Gonads of 14% of the C. striata examined histo- 

 logically showed these fishes undergoing sex suc- 

 cession. These were found primarily after the major 

 spawn (January- April), and during a brief period 

 after the lesser spawn during September-October 

 (Table 7). The smallest individuals exhibiting sex suc- 

 cession were in the 120-139 mm SL interval (Table 

 8); however, the greatest frequency of transitional 

 gonads (77%) occurred in fishes 160-259 mm SL. 

 Males made up 15.4% of the age C. striata and 

 10.5% of fishes <120 mm SL (Tables 8, 9; Fig. 8). 

 The relative abundance of males increased with both 

 size and age, and fish containing transitional gonads 

 increased in abundance during the period of the 

 most rapid decline in the relative number of females 

 (Fig. 8). 



Both male and female tissue developed simulta- 

 neously in the same gonad in 3% of the C. striata 

 examined histologically (Fig. 7D). This occurred in 

 immature, developing, spent, and resting fishes. 

 Both testicular and ovarian tissues showed equiv- 

 alent maturity stages within the same gonad; that 



is, male and female germinal tissue developed con- 

 currently. 



The overall sex ratio for C. striata in the South 

 Atlantic Bight was la: 1.719. We found significantly 

 more females than males from April through 

 November, and inconsistency in the ratio between 

 December and March probably reflected both in- 

 adequate and biased samples from these months. 

 Ratios were significantly different at all sizes from 

 an hypothesized 1:1 (Table 8) except at 200-219 mm 

 SL. The abundance of males begins to increase in 

 that size group and also in age class 4 (Table 9) as 

 the abundance of females declines, reflecting the in- 

 creased frequency of the sex succession process. 



Centropristis striata has a major spawn from 

 January through April when 80-100% of the ovaries 

 were developing or ripe (Fig. 9). Although a second 

 period of ovarian activity was found in September, 

 it was interpreted as being of a lesser nature since 

 only 30% of the females were developing or ripe. 



Table 8.— Sex composition and x 2 values for tests of a 1:1 sex 

 ratio of Centropristis striata by 20 mm SL intervals. * * = P < 0.01 , 

 1 df; * = P < 0.05, 1 df. 



Table 9.— Sex composition and x 2 values for tests of a 1:1 sex 

 ratio of Centropristis striata by age. * * = P < 0.01 , 1 df . 



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