428 
Fishery Bulletin 108(4) 
Table 3 
Number and size of male and female lutjanid individuals sampled from the Great Barrier Reef between 1995 and 20o5 for re- 
productive analysis. Size range is included in parentheses; values in bold indicate significant difference from an even sex ratio. 
Species 
Female 
Male 
Sex ratio 
F/M 
n 
Mean size 
(mm FL) 
n 
Mean size 
(mm FL) 
L. fulviflamma 
28 
263 
16 
250 
1.75 
(209-315) 
(219-285) 
S. nematophorus 
32 
533 
41 
485 
0.78 
(340-772) 
(320-789) 
A. virescens 
50 
511 
32 
509 
1.56 
(332-810) 
(334-778) 
L. adetii 
18 
284 
22 
290 
0.82 
(254-374) 
(243-341) 
L. gibbus 
8 
277 
48 
330 
0.17 
(227-356) 
(262-418) 
L. vitta 
7 
266 
18 
270 
0.39 
(204-307) 
(226-310) 
L. cai'ponotatus 
520 
274 
1722 
292 
0.30 
(203-355) 
(205-405) 
of 36 and 23 years were evident in S. nematophorus (the 
largest species) and L. carponotatus (the second smallest 
species), respectively, despite their different maximum 
sizes. Lutjanus gibbus, A. virescens, and L. fulviflamma 
had shorter life spans and maximum ages of 12, 16, and 
17 years, respectively. Lutjanus carponotatus have previ- 
ously been reported to have maximum ages of 18 and 20 
years (Newman et al., 2000a; Kritzer, 2002, 2004) which 
are consistent with the 23 year maximum obtained here. 
Shorter longevities recorded for L. gibbus, A. virescens, 
and L. fulviflamma align with those from other lutja- 
nid species such as L. vitta (12 years, Newman et al., 
2000a), L. guttatus (rose snapper, 11 years, Amezcua et 
al., 2006), and L. fulviflamma (14 years, Grandcourt et 
al., 2006). In contrast, L. adetii, a small species simi- 
lar in size and appearance to L. vitta, has a reported 
maximum age of 24 years (Newman et al., 1996), further 
demonstrating the variability in life histories of similar 
size lutjanid species. 
This and most previous studies reveal that these 
species have rapid initial growth despite differences 
in size and longevity; however, they reach asymptotic 
sizes at relatively young ages (Newman et al., 1996, 
2000a; Kritzer, 2002, 2004; Grandcourt et al., 2006). 
Newman et al. (1996) suggested that size could not be 
used to infer age for L. adetii beyond five years of age. 
This principle is probably applicable for many lutjanid 
species and is supported by the growth patterns for four 
of the five species for which growth was analyzed, the 
exception being L. gibbus. All five species reached 50% 
of before reaching 4 years of age. Caution should be 
used when generalizing, however, because red bass (L. 
bohar) and goldband snapper ( Pristipomoides multidens) 
have been shown to be slow growing, long lived, and 
late maturing, showing a classic K-selected life history 
(Newman and Dunk, 2003; Marriott et al., 2007). That 
result contrasts with the fast growth observed in most 
other lutjanid species so far examined. 
Lutjanus gibbus was the only species that did not 
reach an asymptote in the unconstrained growth curve. 
This may have been the result of the gear excluding 
smaller and younger individuals, a proposition support- 
ed by the fact that the constrained VBGF curves did 
produce an asymptote and the unconstrained functions 
produced an unrealistic t 0 value of -9.48. Observations 
that larger individuals were collected from deeper water 
indicate that the largest size and oldest age classes of 
L. gibbus and S. nematophorus may have been under- 
sampled. Alternatively, these species may indeed have 
a long growth period and not stop growing throughout 
life, as does L. bohar (Marriott et al., 2007). The larg- 
est reported L. gibbus, however, was 50 cm total length 
(TL) (Carpenter and Niem, 2001) — only 5 cm larger 
than the largest individual sampled in this study (418 
mm FL, =500 mm TL). Lutjanus gibbus was also the 
species with the highest mortality estimates from both 
catch curve and Hoenig’s estimators, indicating that it 
had the highest turnover rates. Further sampling will 
be required to gain a better understanding of the age 
and growth characteristics of this species and resolve 
whether the differences in characteristics between L. 
gibbus and the other species examined were attribut- 
able to different life history strategies or to the effects 
of species-specific sampling biases. 
All five species for which age was estimated reached 
50% of the estimated L „ at young ages in relation to 
their maximum age. The percentage of longevity at 
which 50% was reached was similar for most spe- 
