18 
Fishery Bulletin 95(1 ), 1997 
Although the results of the croaker study suggest 
that modern data relating size to age may not accu- 
rately predict the age of prehistoric fish specimens, 
no data are currently available to address this phe- 
nomenon for any population of bluefin tuna. Should 
bluefin tuna be shown to exhibit the same pattern 
as croaker, the archeological specimens of bluefin 
tuna reported here would actually represent fish 
older than those predicted by this analysis. However, 
length measurements were converted to age and 
weight estimates in this study primarily so that com- 
parisons could be made with modern tuna distribu- 
tion data, which are often reported by age class or 
weight. The critical point was to establish whether 
adult, rather than juvenile, tuna were more abun- 
dant in the archeological sample, because these age 
classes display distinctive behaviors and, more im- 
portantly, have different ecological requirements. 
Size of bluefin tuna represented by the 
archeological sample 
Table 5 presents the final length, weight, and age 
estimates of bluefin tuna by geographic area. By far 
the majority of fish within the total sample (83%) 
were at least 6 years or older, ranging between 160 
Table 4 
Archaeological bluefin tuna vertebrae measurements and fork length estimates, by vertebrae number. All specimens. Measure- 
ments are defined in Figure 2. 
Vertebra 
no. 
Centrum 
GL (mm) 
Centrum 
GB(p) (mm) 
Estimated 
FL (cm) 
Vertebra 
no. 
Centrum 
GL (mm) 
Centrum 
GB(p) (mm) 
Estimated 
FL (cm) 
01 
27.0 
44.4 
198.7 
21 
38.3 
45.1 
189.6 
02 
26.3 
48.2 
191.5 
22 
39.2 
44.8 
189.6 
04 
22.5 
39.6 
164.7 
22 
39.2 
46.5 
188.6 
04 
31.6 
65.1 
224.9 
24 
39.4 
47.5 
193.5 
05 
27.1 
58.7 
212.4 
24 
45.1 
195.3 
06 
30.8 
58.9 
218.2 
25 
40.8 
48.3 
209.8 
09 
25.6 
34.4 
168.2 
26 
40.1 
47.6 
194.8 
(09) 
48.7 
220.8 
(28) 
30.2 
35.9 
190.7 
(09) 
22.3 
30.5 
153.6 
29 
33.7 
36.3 
159.3 
(10) 
33.4 
45.0 
206.7 
29 
45.3 
49.5 
155.3 
11 
24.4 
34.6 
165.5 
29 
50.3 
58.2 
201.1 
(11) 
31.0 
37.8 
177.5 
30 
28.1 
32.0 
221.1 
(12) 
35.0 
200.5 
30 
36.7 
138.5 
(12) 
36.7 
46.5 
206.9 
30 
38.3 
44.0 
167.1 
(12) 
34.9 
41.9 
192.0 
30 
46.7 
172.3 
14 
33.5 
187.0 
30 
47.3 
50.0 
199.2 
(14) 
33.9 
40.9 
185.4 
30 
47.5 
51.2 
201.1 
(14) 
34.1 
42.0 
189.3 
31 
48.6 
52.8 
201.7 
(14) 
32.5 
42.1 
189.7 
31 
52.7 
53.8 
201.3 
(14) 
27.7 
32.8 
157.8 
32 
41.7 
45.6 
215.3 
15 
35.4 
42.5 
188.4 
32 
43.7 
179.3 
(15) 
31.4 
42.5 
188.4 
32 
49.7 
54.4 
185.6 
16 
35.9 
45.6 
191.2 
33 
26.6 
27.0 
204.4 
16 
36.1 
42.9 
191.9 
33 
43.8 
44.8 
122.4 
(16) 
31.3 
35.4 
175.0 
33 
44.5 
47.2 
178.9 
(16) 
33.8 
40.9 
183.9 
33 
44.7 
45.6 
186.5 
(16) 
40.2 
47.2 
206.0 
33 
47.9 
53.9 
181.4 
(16) 
41.2 
51.8 
209.4 
33 
52.2 
53.7 
207.3 
17 
36.0 
42.8 
187.3 
33 
53.7 
55.2 
206.7 
17 
37.5 
47.3 
200.2 
34 
48.1 
211.3 
(17) 
37.0 
43.9 
190.4 
34 
48.2 
202.4 
(17) 
38.2 
44.2 
191.3 
35 
41.2 
42.0 
202.6 
18 
37.2 
46.5 
195.4 
36 
30.5 
200.8 
(18! 
26.8 
32.4 
153.5 
38 
11.9 
28.2 
198.9 
19 
39.4 
47.2 
196.0 
38 
16.5 
31.8 
210.3 
(19) 
27.2 
32.7 
151.9 
39 
23.0 
243.2 
20 
35.5 
44.5 
182.4 
39 
19.5 
198.3 
(20) 
38.0 
45.0 
191.3 
(20) 
44.3 
54.0 
213.4 
