FOURTEEN TELEOSTEAN FISHES AT BEAUFORT, N. C. 
429 
of about 125 millimeters (5 inches) to 1 -year-old spots in Chesapeake Bay. The 
present investigation indicates that the average length attained at Beaufort at an 
hge of 12 months is about 140 millimeters (5.6 inches). Welsh and Breder (loc. cit.) 
assign the same modal length, namely 140 millimeters (5.6 inches) to 1-year-old 
fish at Fernandina, Fla., and Pearson (1929, p. 209) indicates an average length of 
about 130 to 140 millimeters (5.1 to 5.6 inches) at 1 year of age for fish taken in 
Texas. The difference in the rate of growth of the spot during the first year, as 
shown by the information available, is not great for the different localities given, 
except for New Jersey. 
No special effort was made during the present investigation to follow the rate 
of growth of the spot after the first 12 months of life, as already stated. Further- 
more, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to obtain reliable information 
on the growth of the older fish from length frequencies. Such work certainly would 
have to be supported by scale studies, and even then it would be difficult because of 
the migrations performed by the fish, as pointed out elsewhere. 
Welsh and Breder (1923, p. 179) found it difficult to determine the age of spots 
by scale examinations, owing to the faintness of the winter rings. However, they 
estimated from such studies that 1-year-old spots in New Jersey are 3 to 4 inches; 
2-year-old ones, 6% to 8% inches; and 3-year-old ones, 9 % to 11% inches long. The 
largest example examined was 11% inches long, and the age indicated by the scales 
was 4% years. Pearson (1929, p. 209) assigns a length of 7.4 to 8.2 inches to the fish 
at the end of their second year, and few older fish were observed. 
The data in frequencies in Table 7 show that a considerable percentage of the 
fish of the I class reach a length of 190 to 200 millimeters (7% to 8 inches) at Beau- 
fort by April when about 16 or 17 months old. The data for this year class after 
that month are too meager to be significant but the indications, at least, are that 
many of the fish at the end of their second year exceed a length of 8 inches. It seems 
improbable, however, that the 2-year-old fish constitute the bulk of the schools of 
large fish taken locally in the fall of the year which generally range upward of 9% 
inches in length. Such fish quite certainly are near the end of their third year or 
older. 
AGE AT SEXUAL MATURITY AND THE SPAN OF LIFE 
No spots less than 8 inches in length with developing or nearly mature roe were 
seen during the present investigation. The small, ripening fish contrary to the 
larger ones are not found in schools but are taken one or a few at a time. Hilde- 
brand and Schroeder (1928, p. 274) examined 104 fish, ranging from 4% to 10% inches 
in length, taken at Ocean View, Va., in October, shortty prior to the spawning season, 
and found no fish less than 8% inches in length with gonads in such a state of develop- 
ment that they would have spawned that year. Pearson (1929, p. 209) found some 
fish in Texas (where the spot does not grow large) only a little over 6% inches in 
length in spawning condition. However, he concludes that these small fish were 
approaching an age of 2 years. It is evident also that Beaufort and Chesapeake 
Bay fishes do not reach sexual maturity at 1 year of age, for it has been shown in 
the preceding pages that few, if any, fish from these localities reach a length as great as 
8 inches during their first year and that the average length attained is only about 5 
to 5% inches, whereas the minimum spawning size, as already shown, is 8 to 8% inches. 
The present writers, as stated elsewhere, did not make a special study of the 
age and growth of the spot after they are a year old, and they have no specific data 
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