Burton et al: Age, growth, and mortality of Balistes capriscus from the southeastern United States 
31 
0 Edge type 4 
□ Edge type 3 
□ Edge type 2 
■ Edge type 1 
10 11 12 
Figure 1 
Monthly percentages of (A) spine sections with translucent margins on 
their edges, with monthly sample sizes, and (B) monthly percentages of 
all edge types for gray triggerfish ( Balistes capriscus) collected from the 
southeastern United States in 1990-2012. Edge codes: l=translucent zone 
on edge, indicating annulus formation; 2=small opaque zone, <30% of previ- 
ous increment; 3=moderate opaque, 30-60% of previous increment; 4=wide 
opaque, >60% of previous increment. 
dent trap gear, but there were only 13 fish older than 
age 11 (Table 2). Length and age distributions of the 
samples by sector (commercial versus recreational) are 
shown in Figure 3. Visual examination of size and age 
frequency plots showed no apparent differences in both 
distributions by sector, with the exceptions that no fish 
older than age 9 occurred in the recreational samples 
and commercial samples had fish up to age 15 (Fig. 
3A). Modal lengths were 350 mm FL for the commer- 
cial sector and 325 mm FL for the recreational sector 
(Fig. 3B). Mean fork lengths of the specimens by fish- 
ery were significantly different: 383 mm FL (standard 
error [SE] 0.7) for the commercial sector versus 350 
mm FL (SE 1.9) for the recreational fishery (£=16.72; 
df=6253; P=0.0001). The modal age frequency for both 
fisheries was 4 years (Fig. 3A). Mean ages were found 
to be significantly different between fisheries: 4.6 years 
(SE 0.02) versus 4.0 years (SE 0.04) for commercial and 
recreational sectors, respectively (£=11.9; df=1042.3; 
P=0.0001). 
