Wintner and Cliff: Age and growth determination of Carcharhmus limbatus 



139 



20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 



Precaudal length (cm) 



Figure 3 



Relationship of length to centrum diameter for combined sexes of the 

 blacktip shark, C. limbatus. 



than those calculated from mean predicted lengths 

 (Fig. 6). The mean growth rate for predicted lengths 

 over the first three years was 24 cm/yr. Adolescent 

 sharks, until age six or seven, grew an average of 

 11-13 cm/yr. After maturity the growth rate dropped 

 to 5-6 cm/yr. 



Discussion 



The APE index for each of the three different ring- 

 enhancing methods (8.1-9.4%) was higher than that 

 of Brown and Gruber ( 1988), who used alizarin-red- 

 S-stained and unstained "bow tie" sections of 



