Crabtree et al.: Reproduction of Albu la vulpes 
463 
1992 1993 1994 
Month 
Figure 6 
Monthly median gonadosomatic indices (GSI) and interquartile ranges for sexu- 
ally mature male and female bonefish, Albula vulpes. 
Weight (g) 
Figure 7 
The fecundity-weight (g) relation for bonefish, Albula vulpes. The fecun- 
dity-weight regression equation is presented in Table 1. 
found that the abundance of pre- 
metamorphic bonefish larvae in the 
West Indies was seasonal and that 
most larvae (96% of a total collec- 
tion of 417 premetamorphic larvae) 
were caught during November- 
April. She concluded, from the cap- 
ture of 17 premetamorphic larvae 
during August, that bonefish spawn 
throughout the year in the West 
Indies, but she suggested that bone- 
fish spawn at reduced levels during 
the hot summer months. The 17 lar- 
vae that she reported were captured 
in August and were caught far south 
of the Florida Keys — at 13°11'N lati- 
tude, where spawning may follow a 
different seasonal pattern than it 
does in the Keys. 
Studies from other areas also sug- 
gest seasonal reproduction in bone- 
fish. Recruitment studies off the 
Bahama Islands suggest that spawn- 
ing there has a seasonal pattern 
that is similar to that of spawning 
in the Florida Keys. Mojica et al. 
(1995) backcalculated hatching 
dates from the analysis of otolith micro- 
structure of field-collected larvae and 
found that bonefish spawned continu- 
ously from mid-October through early 
January. Recruitment patterns suggest 
that spawning probably continues until 
spring, because Mojica et al. (1995) ob- 
served recruitment pulses of bonefish 
larvae as late as June — presumably re- 
sulting from April and May spawning. 
Bonefish spawning in the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia also appears to be seasonal. Pfeiler 
et al. (1988) examined gonads from 33 
bonefish ranging from 202 to 279 mm 
(SL) and suggested that Albula sp. in the 
Gulf of California spawn during late 
spring and early summer. Metamorphic 
leptocephali are abundant in coastal re- 
gions and hypersaline lagoons through- 
out the Gulf of California during winter 
and spring (Pfeiler, 1984; Pfeiler et al., 
1988). Pfeiler et al. (1988) suggested that 
the premetamorphic larval phase lasts 6 
or 7 months. 
The location of bonefish spawning grounds remains 
unknown, but the absence of females with post- 
ovulatory follicles or many hydrated oocytes in our 
samples suggests that bonefish do not spawn in the 
shallow nearshore areas where the fishery exists. It 
is possible that bonefish had spawned in our sam- 
pling area but did not feed before or after spawning 
and so were not available for capture with hook-and- 
