656 
Fishery Bulletin 99(4) 
Proportions of otoliths with opaque margins were plot- 
ted by month of capture for all individuals (n=3791), for 
those individuals presumed to be sexually immature (ages 
less than or equal to 5, n=2143), and for those from indi- 
viduals of presumptive sexual maturity (ages greater than 
5, n=948). Each of the three plots (Fig. 3) features a sin- 
gle broad peak and a single broad valley and conclusively 
demonstrates opaque annulus formation from December 
through June and translucent annulus formation from Ju- 
ly through. November. Thus, the assumption of one to one 
correspondence between opaque annulus counts and esti- 
mated red snapper age in years is validated. Furthermore, 
this correspondence is validated for immature and mature 
individuals of all ages. 
Having demonstrated once yearly accretion of opaque 
annuli, we estimated ages from 0.5 to 52.6 yr from the 
annulus counts of the red snapper in our study. The vast 
majority of specimens examined were ages 2-5 and only 
1.2% of the total number were greater than age 15 yr (Fig. 
4). The few ages greater than 15 yr, which were not repre- 
sented in our sample, were 24, 28, 31, 34, 39, 40, 42-46, 
and 49-50. The otolith section from the oldest specimen 
examined is shown in Figure 5. 
Among 3787 individuals, the single von Bertalanffy 
growth model which best describes red snapper TL at age 
was 
TL (mm) = 941 [1 _ e -o.i8u + o.55) ]; 
(r 2 =0.72). 
