316 
Fishery Bulletin 111(4) 
had ovaries >20 g at 448 mm FL (5.0 years) and testes 
>20 g at 472 mm FL (10.91 years) (Fig. 5). 
These preliminary data indicate the difference in 
length at maturity may be up to 24% between the 
northernmost and southernmost samples, but age at 
maturity (6-10 years) may be similar among regions, 
depending on sex. The north Queensland females and 
males matured at -81% and -72% of L„, respectively, 
and for samples from the Kimberley region they ma- 
tured at -74% and -87%, respectively. 
Latitudinal spread of catch records 
Catch records for Indo-West Pacific lutjanids indicate 
that the latitudes farthest from the equator produced 
the largest individuals for 7 species, in a steeply con- 
cave, “U-shaped” relationship, but we could not locate 
any records for other equatorial countries to fit statis- 
tical relationships (Fig. 6). Most records were obtained 
from landings in the southern hemisphere, but several 
world records came from Japan. The largest records 
for John’s Snapper show a steep rise over about 8°S 
from 7.2 kg in Darwin (Australian all-tackle [AAA] re- 
cord) to weights of 10.5 kg (97 cm total length, world 
all-tackle [IGFA] record), 12.420 kg (6-kg line-class 
[ANSA] record), and 12.0 kg (spearfishing [AUF] re- 
cord) near Cairns. The maximum published weight 
from scientific samples is 4.7 kg for a 71-cm John’s 
Snapper from the Andaman Sea (Druzhinin and Hla- 
ing, 1972). 
Discussion 
Our detection of latitudinal dines in L,„ of John’s 
Snapper with distance from the equator is explained 
