698 
Fishery Bulletin 95(4), 1997 
> 
o 
c 
0) 
n 
cr 
(U 
1 986-1 992 
Atlantic Ocean 
90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 
Eastern Gulf 
F ema I e s 
n - 2753 
Males 
rt-1 285 
40 50 60 
90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 
1977-1978 
Atlantic Ocean 
u 
M 1 1 
F ema 1 e s 
n - 323 
Males 
n - 128 
40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 
Eastern Gulf 
F ema I e s 
40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 
We stern Gulf 
40 50 60 70 60 90 100 tIO 120 130 140 150 160 
Fork length (cm) 
Figure 1 
Length-frequency distribution by sex and region of king mackerel included in the analysis and collected during 1977-78 
and 1986-92. 
females averaged 12.2 cm (SD=0.4) larger than Atlan- 
tic females, whereas eastern Gulf males averaged 6.9 
cm (SB=0.4) larger than Atlantic males. 
The pattern of highest growth in the eastern Gulf, 
intermediate growth in the western Gulf, and low- 
est growth in the Atlantic seen in the pooled 1986- 
92 data was very consistent and present each year 
during that period. These consistent regional differ- 
ences were especially noticeable among females (Fig. 
4). Among males, the eastern Gulf growth curve was 
clearly higher than that for the Atlantic each year, 
whereas the growth curve for the western Gulf was 
intermediate in younger fish but converged with the 
eastern curve at about age 12-14 (Fig. 5). 
In 1977 and 1978, as during 1986-92, growth of 
females was lowest for Atlantic fish; however, unlike 
