Burton et al.: Age, growth, and mortality of Bcilistes capriscus from the southeastern United States 
35 
Table 3 
Results of analysis of covariance of length at age testing for differences by fishery (rec- 
reational and commercial) and state (NC, SC, FI^GA) between gray triggerfish ( Bcilistes 
capriscus) aging samples collected during 1990-2012. An asterisk (*) indicates a sig- 
nificant probability value. A dash indicates that the sample distribution did not allow 
for a test of significance. 
Age 
n 
Fishery 
State 
Fishery*State 
0 
i 
_ 
_ 
_ 
1 
23 
F=0.03,P=0.87 
F=5.76, P=0.02* 
- 
2 
451 
F=2.01, P=0.157 
F=1.59,P=0.20 
F=7.02, P=0.001* 
3 
1470 
F=16.74,P=0.001* 
F=0.94, P=0.39 
F=1.27, P=0.28 
4 
1773 
F=0.33,P=0.56 
F=1.46,P=0.23 
F=0.83, P=0.43 
5 
1333 
F=0.23, P=0.63 
F=0.81,P=0.44 
F=2.76, P=0.06 
6 
684 
F=2.27,P=0.13 
F=0.001, P=0.99 
F=2.80, P=0.06 
7 
313 
F=4.58, P=0.03* 
F=2.06, P=0.12 
F=1.09, P=0.33 
8 
130 
F=2093, P=0.09 
F=0.63,P=0.53 
F=0.03, P=0.43 
9 
53 
F=1.82,P=0.18 
F=10.75,P=0.0001* 
- 
10 
22 
- 
F=0.14, P=0.71 
- 
11 
8 
- 
F=1.08,P=0.34 
- 
12 
4 
- 
- 
- 
13 
1 
- 
- 
- 
14 
2 
- 
- 
- 
15 
1 
- 
- 
generate growth estimates. Even though size limits 
existed only for fish taken from waters off the east- 
ern coast of Florida during our study (432 of 6267 fish, 
or 7%), we re-ran the growth model using the method 
of McGarvey and Fowler (2002), which adjusts for the 
bias imposed by minimum size limits, and we found 
no effect of minimum size limits on our parameter es- 
timates. We are confident that our samples represent 
the smallest fish recruited to the hook-and-line gears. 
Nevertheless, we collected few fish younger than age 2. 
It is probable that more comprehensive sampling with 
fishery-independent gear would capture younger gray 
triggerfish. 
As another strategy to address the lack of smaller, 
younger fish and the effect this deficiency may have 
on estimation of the early part of the growth curve, 
Table 4 
Comparison of life history parameters of gray triggerfish ( Batistes capriscus ) from various studies. L 00 =asymptotic length; 
F=growth coefficient; fo=theoretical age at length of zero; SEUS=southeastern United States; and FL=fork length. 
Parameter 
Study 
(mm) 
K 
to 
Peak in 
translucent edges 
Peak 
spawning 
Maximum 
age (yr) 
Johnson and Saloman 
( 1984) — U.S. Gulf of Mexico 
466 FL 
0.38 
- 0.19 
June-July 
April-May 
13 
Moore (2001)— SEUS 
Males 
521 FL 
0.17 
-2.03 
June 
June-July 
10 
Females 
443 FL 
0.19 
-2.26 
June 
May-Sept 
9 
Escorriola (1991) 
571 FL 
0.19 
-0.15 
July-Sept 
- 
13 
Burton et al. (current study) 
457 FL 
0.33 
-1.58 
April-May 
- 
15 
