316 
Fishery Bulletin 112(4) 
Table 1 
Ages, number of specimens sampled (n), and means and ranges of total length (TL) and weight (WT) for dusky grou- 
pers ( Epinephelus marginatus ) caught at the Carpinteiro Bank in the southwestern Atlantic by small-scale fisheries 
from 2008 to 2011. Standard deviations of the means (SD) are provided in parentheses. 
Age (years) 
n 
Mean TL (mm) 
TL range (mm) 
Mean WT (g) 
WT range (g) 
1 
2 
160.0 (14.1) 
150-170 
58.2 (14.6) 
47.9-68.5 
2 
27 
325.7 (38.0) 
290-405 
602.3 (196.6) 
314.5-1227.9 
3 
28 
385.9(38.0) 
277-453 
1081.2 (297.6) 
400.0-1675.8 
4 
28 
464.1 (48.4) 
365-561 
1890.8 (661.5) 
1015.0-3513.0 
5 
15 
526.9 (44.4) 
420-635 
2806.0 (977.9) 
1284.0-5902.0 
6 
22 
563.9(45.2) 
485-680 
3415.8(1053.9) 
2108.7-6530.0 
7 
21 
587.3 (60.6) 
475-671 
4135.1 (1384.0) 
2103.3-7045.0 
8 
12 
658.1 (38.6) 
606-713 
5824.9 (1553.5) 
4080.0-8950.0 
9 
1 
532.0 
532.0 
3171.0 
3171.0 
10 
3 
709.7 (57.6) 
650-765 
7213.3 (2725.1) 
4590.0-10030.0 
11 
2 
744.0 (50.9) 
708-780 
7137.5 (88.4) 
7075.0-7200.0 
14 
3 
748.3 (72.9) 
665-800 
7785.8 (2671.2) 
4725.8-9651.5 
15 
2 
774.0 (28.3) 
754-794 
9390.0 (3620.4) 
6830.0-11,950.0 
17 
2 
729.5 (36.1) 
704-755 
6715.0 (792.0) 
6155.0-7275.0 
18 
3 
762.3 (87.9) 
668-842 
7746.7 (3225.9) 
5100.0-11,340.0 
19 
1 
764.0 
764.0 
7025.0 
7025.0 
20 
1 
850.0 
850.0 
10,000.0 
10,000.0 
21 
1 
770.0 
770.0 
8100.0 
8100.0 
22 
2 
825.0 (7.1) 
820-830 
10,900.3 (423.8) 
10,600.6-11,200.0 
23 
5 
808.0 (118.3) 
660-985 
10309.0 (4650.2) 
6030.0-17,850.0 
24 
2 
881.0 (12.7) 
872- 890 
10657.5 (2605.7) 
8815.0-12,500.0 
25 
1 
933.0 
933.0 
15,100,0 
15,100.0 
27 
1 
910.0 
910.0 
16,300.0 
16,300.0 
28 
1 
864.0 
864.0 
11,100.0 
11,100.0 
29 
1 
917.0 
917.0 
14,335.0 
14,335.0 
31 
1 
875.0 
875.0 
10,560.0 
10,560.0 
34 
1 
981.0 
981.0 
11,700.0 
11,700.0 
40 
1 
1160.0 
1160.0 
25,000.0 
25,000.0 
Examination of the von Bertalanffy parameters 
revealed that dusky groupers from Carpinteiro Bank 
grow slightly faster and attain slightly smaller theo- 
retical maximum lengths than fish sampled from other 
areas in other studies. Although the von Bertalanffy 
model provided realistic estimates of growth param- 
eters, (900 mm TL) was considerably smaller than 
the maximum length actually observed in this study 
(1160 mm TL) because fish older than 25 years were 
poorly represented. Given that the growth parameters 
were estimated by least squares fitting, the addition of 
more old individuals would most likely increase and 
decrease K because of the intrinsic antagonism of these 
parameters, and the revised set of parameters would be 
closer to the values reported in Table 2. Therefore, our 
results indicate that fitting a von Bertalanffy model to 
our actual data tends to slightly overestimate K and 
underestimate compared with a more realistic sam- 
pling size. Also, it may be possible that K estimated for 
the Mediterranean Sea (see Table 2) were higher than 
the values for other areas because of limited sampling. 
Groupers are generally recognized as long-lived fish- 
es capable of reaching maximum ages of more than 60 
years (e.g., Renones et ah, 2007). The maximum longev- 
ity of dusky groupers in this study was approximately 
40 years, which is the second-highest longevity among 
the values observed worldwide (see Table 2). Current- 
ly, the most important factor influencing fish longevity 
most likely is fishing activity because fishing is expect- 
ed to preferentially remove large, old fish from natural 
populations (King, 1995). According to local tradition- 
al fishermen, fisheries over the Carpinteiro Bank are 
known to have occurred since the 1960s, and fishing 
effort has been rising ever since. Additionally, fishing 
effort and the number of fishing boats operating in the 
region have increased during the last 3 decades (Cowx 
et ah, 1998), and those changes could have resulted in 
the decreased availability of the older age classes of 
dusky grouper that we observed in this study. Another 
interesting finding was that approximately 40% of the 
fish captured offshore were immature (L 5 o=496 mm TL, 
as estimated from Condini et al., 2014). Given the com- 
