Patterson et al.: Age and growth of Lutjanus campechcinus 
623 
Table 2 
Results from previous studies of the age and growth of Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. Atlantic red snapper. 
Study and location 
Aging structure 
Maximum age (yr) 
L ^ mm (TL) 
K 
^0 
Szedlmayer and Shipp (1994); 
north central GOM 
sectioned otoliths 
42 
1025 
0.150 
not reported 
Wilson and Nieland, 2001; 
northwest GOM 
sectioned otoliths 
53 
938 
0.175 
-0.530 
Nelson and Manooch (1982); GOM 
scales and sectioned otoliths 
15 
941 
0.170 
-0.10 
Nelson and Manooch (1982); 
southeast U.S. Atlantic 
scales and sectioned otoliths 
15 
975 
0.160 
0.00 
Manooch and Potts ( 1997); 
southeast U.S. Atlantic 
sectioned otoliths 
25 
955 
0.146 
0.182 
Figure 7 
Von Bertalanffy growth functions estimated from TL-at-age data for Gulf 
of Mexico red snapper. Legend indicates source of each function. 
authors have reported fish over 40 yr old 
(Szedlmayer and Shipp, 1994; Render, 1995; 
Wilson and Nieland, 2001) and the oldest 
fish aged to date is 53 yr old (Render, 1995; 
Wilson and Nieland, 2001). Among western 
Atlantic lutjanids for which maximum age 
has been reported, GOM red snapper has the 
greatest longevity (Acosta and Appledoorn, 
1992; Manickchand-Heileman and Phillip, 
1996; Potts et al., 1998; Hood and Johnson, 
1999). Maximum ages of 30+ and 40+ yr 
have been reported for several species of 
Pacific lutjanids (reviewed in Rocha-Oliva- 
res, 1998). 
Overall, the numbers of sampled males 
and females were nearly equal, but females 
were predominant in samples greater than 
10 yr old. A similar pattern was observed in 
Pacific red snapper, Lutjanus peru , where 
the female-to-male ratio was essentially 
equal (1.1:1) for fish less than 10 yr old 
and 2.4:1 for fish older than 10 yr (Ro- 
cha-Olivares, 1998, Fig. 6). Rocha-Olivares 
(1998) concluded from catch curve analyses 
that differences in sex-specific numbers at 
age for L. peru resulted from males experi- 
encing a higher mortality rate. Differential 
mortality between sexes is not unusual in 
lutjanids (Grimes, 1987) and the predominance of female 
GOM red snapper in older age classes may result from a 
higher mortality rate for males. 
Fish sampled from tournaments were included in growth 
estimation because few large, old individuals were sam- 
pled randomly from the recreational catch. The inclusion 
of tournament sampled fish could bias growth estimates 
because tournament anglers target large fish; thus the po- 
tential exists for them to catch or spear the fastest grow- 
ing individuals at a given age (Ottera, 1992; Vaughan and 
Burton, 1993; Goodyear, 1995b). Without the fish sampled 
from tournaments, however, the VBGF did not reach an 
asymptote; therefore growth parameters were poorly esti- 
mated (Hirschhorn, 1974). We feel that excluding the tour- 
nament fish from growth function estimation introduced 
far greater bias than including them. 
Mark-Recapture 
Comparisons between estimated growth of tagged red 
snapper and otolith-aged fish corroborate otolith aging 
methods. Predicted TL of tagged individuals obtained with 
Fabens’ (1965) method and VBGF parameters estimated 
from otolith-aged fish are coincident with observed TL at 
recapture because predicted and observed values corre- 
sponded well to the line of 1:1 agreement. Although ours 
