Abstract. - Age, growth, and 

 reproduction were studied in goose- 

 fish Lophius americarms collected 

 from National Marine Fisheries Ser- 

 vice groundfish surveys and com- 

 mercial fishing cruises between 

 Georges Bank and Cape Hatteras in 

 the western North Atlantic. Age and 

 growth of L. americanus were deter- 

 mined from vertebral annuli, which 

 became visible at the edge of the ver- 

 tebral centra in May. Maximum ages 

 of males and females were 9 and 11 

 years, respectively. Males appeared 

 to experience higher mortality than 

 females in the older age-classes. Von 

 Bertalanffy growth curves calcu- 

 lated for males and females had ex- 

 cellent agreement with back-calcu- 

 lated lengths. The growth rate of L. 

 americamcs was intermediate to its 

 eastern Atlantic congeners, L. pisca- 

 torius and L. budegassa. Male L. 

 americanus matured at 3-i- years 

 (~370mm TL) and females at 4 + 

 years ('^^485mm TL). Spawning took 

 place primarily in May and June. 

 Fecundity in 17 individuals of 610- 

 1048 mm TL ranged from 300,000 to 

 2,800,000 ova, and was linear with 

 total length in that size range. Histo- 

 logical examination of the ovaries 

 showed they are remarkably similar 

 to ovaries of other lophiiform spe- 

 cies. Females produced egg veils, 

 which may function in dispersion, 

 buoyancy, facilitating fertilization, 

 and protection of the eggs and 

 larvae. 



Age, growth, and reproduction 



of the goosefish Lophius americanus 



(Pisces:Lophiif ormes) * 



Michael P. Armstrong 



School of Marine Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science 

 College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062 

 Present address: Department of Zoology, University of New Hampshire 

 Durham, New Hampshire 03824 



John A. Musick 

 James A. Colvocoresses 



School of Marine Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science 

 College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062 



The goosefish Lophius americanus 

 (Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valen- 

 ciennes 1837) is a benthic fish which 

 occurs in the Northwest Atlantic 

 Ocean from the northern Gulf of 

 Saint Lawrence, southward to Cape 

 Hatteras, North Carolina (Bigelow 

 and Schroeder 1953, Scott and Scott 

 1988) and less commonly to Florida 

 (Caruso 1983). It has a eurybathic 

 depth distribution, having been col- 

 lected from the tideline (Bigelow and 

 Schroeder 1953) to approximately 

 840 m (Markle and Musick 1974), al- 

 though few large individuals occur 

 deeper than 400 m (Wenner 1978). 

 Goosefish have been taken in tem- 

 peratures of 0-24 °C (Grosslein and 

 Azarovitz 1982), but seem to be most 

 abundant in temperatures of about 

 9°C in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (Ed- 

 wards 1965), 3-9 °C in Canadian 

 waters (Jean 1965), and 7-11 °C on 

 the continental slope off Virginia 

 (Wenner 1978). The goosefish is sym- 

 patric with the black-finned goose- 

 fish L. gastrophysus in deep water 

 (>100-150m) from Cape Hatteras to 

 the Florida coast, although strays of 

 L. gastrophysus occur as far north as 

 Washington Canyon, off Virginia 

 (pers. observ., MPA). 



Manuscript accepted 20 March 1992. 

 Fishery Bulletin, U.S. 90:217-230 (1992). 



'Contribution 1735, Virginia Institute of Ma- 

 rine Science. 



Lophitts americamis was confused 

 with L. piscatorius, a European spe- 

 cies, for many years. Thus all refer- 

 ences to L. piscatorius in the western 

 North Atlantic north of Cape Hat- 

 teras actually refer to L. americanus 

 (Caruso 1977). There are several 

 accounts of the species' life history 

 (Gill 1905, Connolly 1920, Dahlgren 

 1928, Hildebrand and Schroeder 

 1928, Proctor et al. 1928, McKen- 

 zie 1936, Bigelow and Schroeder 

 1953, Grosslein and Azarovitz 1982, 

 Scott and Scott 1988), but all are 

 general in nature. Much of the infor- 

 mation contained in these reports is 

 anecdotal. 



Goosefish are a bycatch of ground- 

 fishing and scalloping operations and 

 are marketed under the name monk- 

 fish. They have traditionally been 

 considered "trash" fish in the United 

 States and discarded at sea or used 

 in the production of fish meal, with 

 a small amount being exported to 

 Europe where Lophius has been 

 highly esteemed as a food fish for 

 centuries. Goosefish have become 

 more popular with the American con- 

 sumer due to dwindling catches and 

 rising prices in recent years of the 

 more traditional fishery products. 

 Commercial landings have been in- 

 creasing yearly since 1970 (Northeast 

 Fisheries Science Center 1991). This 



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