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Fishery Bulletin 96(2), 1998 
the mean oocytes/mg, averaged across all sub- 
samples, by total egg mass weight. Fecundity data 
were fit to an allometric relationship with log length- 
log fecundity linear regression (Haldorson and Love, 
1991). 
Results 
Females with unfertilized eggs were caught from 26 
June to 8 August 1994. Embryos without pigmented 
eyes were observed from 22 July to 29 August, and 
embryos with pigmented eyes from 24 July to 29 
August. The first spent female was observed on 21 
August, and all mature females caught from 31 Au- 
gust to 10 September showed spent ovaries. Only 
resting females were captured on 30 December. Ma- 
ture females captured on 12 March 1995, were 
either resting or in the initial stages of vitellogen- 
esis. Spawning occurred over a relatively short time 
period, with only 9 days between the time when the 
first spent female and the last gravid female were ob- 
served. Ovaries did not contain developing 
embryos and cleaving eggs at the same time, 
indicating that individual Puget Sound rock- 
fish spawn only one brood per season. 
The oldest observed fish was a female 13 
years old, followed by a 12-year-old male. The 
largest male caught was 145 mm FL and the 
largest female 178 mm FL (Fig. 2). The age- 
length relation (von Bertalanffy growth 
model) for male Puget Sound rockfish was 
L t = 137.39 (1 - e -°- 7042 <' +0 3232 >) and for fe- 
males L f = 170.72 (1 - e -0.5353 tt+0.4603))_ 
Based on the regression result of ln(fre- 
quency) = 5.554-0.44 (age), the instanta- 
neous annual rate of natural mortality (M) 
for fish 3 years and older was estimated to 
be 0.44 (Fig. 1). 
Female Puget Sound rockfish reached 
sexual maturity at a median length of L 0 5 = 
121.71 mm FL (Fig. 3) corresponding to a 
predicted age of 1.87 years with the von 
Bertalanffy growth model. The length- 
maturity parameters derived from the lo- 
gistic model were a - -39.678 and = 0.326. 
The average length of all mature females 
larger than L 0 5 was L AV = 150.93 mm. 
The somatic weight-length relationship 
was SW = 5.882 x 10 -5 L 2 687 with the pre- 
dicted somatic weight for L AV = 42.06 g. 
The gonad weight-length relationship was 
GW = 5.869 x 10“ 7 L 3151 with the predicted 
gonad weight for L AV = 4.30 g. From these 
two weights the GSI for Puget Sound rock- 
fish was computed as 0.10. 
The lowest fecundity was 3,295 eggs for 
a female of 112 mm FL and the highest 
was 57,787 for an individual 156 mm FL 
(Fig. 4). The length-fecundity (F) relation- 
ship was F = 0.052 L 2,679 , and the fecun- 
dity for a mature female of average length 
(150.93 mm) was estimated to be 35,723 
eggs. The estimated fecundity per gram for 
a female L 0 5 cm long (Haldorson and Love, 
1991) was 779 eggs. 
Age (yr) 
Figure 2 
Comparison of female and male age-length (FL) relationships for Puget 
Sound rockfish. Solid line and filled circles show predicted relationship 
(von Bertalanffy growth model) and data for females; dashed line and 
open triangles show predicted relationship and data for males. 
