because of the uncertainty in aging these larger and slower growing 

 fish. An age-length key was constructed by determining the percentage 

 that each of the ages 1 through 7+ made up of every 1-cm length 

 increment in the sample of aged fish. This key was used to assign an 

 age to all fish measured during the abundance survey. The percentages 

 of the age-length distribution together with the abundance estimates 

 were used to compute the population age structure. 



The growth rate of Niantic River winter flounder was found by 

 additional examination of one of the scales used in age determination. 

 Measurements were taken from the midpoint of the scale focus to each 

 annulus and to the anterior margin of the projected scale image along a 

 standard axis (Tesch 1968; Everhart et al. 1975). For the 

 back-calculation of length-at-age, the relationship between scale size 

 and fish length was examined using a functional regression (Jolicoeur 

 1975; Sprent and Dolby 1980). Annuli measurements for each fish were 

 substituted into the appropriate regression equation for back-calculation 

 of growth. Mean lengths-at-age with 95% confidence intervals were then 

 computed. 



Using the above length-at-age data, the von Bertalanffy growth 

 model (Ricker 1975; Gallucci and Quinn 1979) was used to describe the 

 growth of Niantic River winter flounder: 



Lj. = I;x>(l_exp(-K(t-tQ))) 



where 



L = length in mm at age t in years 



K = growth coefficient 



Lx>= asymptotic maximum length in mm 



t„ = hypothetical age in years at which a fish would have 



zero length if it had always grown in the manner 



described by the equation 



A nonlinear procedure using the modified Gauss-Newton iterative method 

 (SAS Institute Inc. 1982b) was used to estimate the growth model 



