68 THE TARPON 



WEIGHT LENGTH SEX CAPTURED LOCALITY POSSIBLE AGE 



32 lbs — 7/ 2/24 Florida 8 years 



_ '' 4'.6'' _ 7/— /24 " 9 or 10 



70 '' Female 6/— /24 '* 12 



102 '' — " 6/21/24 '' 13 or 14 



103 " " 6/20/24 " 14 

 127 " Female 6/30/24 " 16 





"It appears that the scale of each species of fish must 

 be given individual study in order to determine the cor- 

 rect characters that will aid in showing the age. The cod, 

 the pollock and the haddock scale, although of the same 

 type, have their peculiarities. Because of the great abund- 

 ance of these species, the wide range in sizes, their com- 

 mercial value, certain well known factors of their life 

 histories and the fact that the scales are of a type that 

 shows annual gro^vth rather clearly, these 8 species are 

 quite satisfactory to work with. Other species like the 

 herring are more difficult while with the shad we have 

 been able to make scarcely any headway in determining 

 age beyond the first year. 



"No doubt there are many species of fish whose scales 

 will show the age satisfactorily after a reasonable study, 

 but as yet this method — age determination by scales — is 

 in its infancy and comparatively few species have been 

 tried out. 



"The tarpon comes in that group of fish whose scales 

 have received but little attention. It might be thought 

 that because of its large size the tarpon scale is simple 

 to study, but registration of the growth rather than size 

 of the scale is the important factor in determining age. 



"About three-fourths of the tarpon scale is composed 

 of concentric rings while the remainder, the exposed por- 

 tion, is marked with radii. The important part of the scale 

 is usually the rings, in this case the incompleted rings. The 

 inner part of the scales at hand contain many rings close 



