20 
Age, growth, and spawning season 
of red bream ( Beryx decadactylus ) 
off the southeastern United States 
Claudia Friess (contact author ) 1 * 
George R. Sedberry 2 
Email address for contact author: cfriess@oceanconservancy.org 
1 Grice Marine Laboratory 
College of Charleston 
205 Fort Johnson Road 
Charleston, South Carolina 29412-9110 
* Present address: Ocean Conservancy 
106 E 6 th St 
Austin, TX 78701 
2 Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary 
10 Ocean Science Circle 
Savannah, Georgia 31411 
Abstract — Red bream ( Beryx deca- 
dactylus) is a commercially important 
deep-sea benthopelagic fish with a cir- 
cumglobal distribution on insular and 
continental slopes and seamounts. In 
the United States, small numbers are 
caught incidentally in the wreckfish 
(Polyprion americanus) fishery which 
operates off the southeastern coast, 
but no biological information exists 
for the management of the U.S. red 
bream population. For this study, oto- 
liths (72 = 163) and gonads (72 = 161) were 
collected from commercially caught 
red bream between 2003 and 2008 
to determine life history parameters. 
Specimens ranged in size from 410 
to 630 mm fork length and were all 
determined to be mature by histo- 
logical examination of the gonads. 
Females in spawning condition were 
observed from June through Septem- 
ber, and reproductively active males 
were found year-round. Sectioned 
otoliths were difficult to interpret, 
but maximum age estimates were 
much higher than the 15 years pre- 
viously reported for this species from 
the eastern North Atlantic based on 
whole-otolith analysis. Estimated 
ages ranged from 8 to 69 years, and 
a minimum lifespan of 49 years was 
validated by using bomb radiocarbon 
dating. Natural mortality was esti- 
mated at 0.06/yr. This study shows 
that red bream are longer lived and 
more vulnerable to overfishing than 
previously assumed and should be 
managed carefully to prevent over- 
exploitation. 
Manuscript submitted 30 September 2009. 
Manuscript accepted 28 September 2010. 
Fish. Bull. 109:20-33 (2011). 
The views and opinions expressed 
or implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National Marine 
Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Red bream (Beryx decadactylus , 
Cuvier, 1829) is one of three species 
in the genus Beryx (Beryciformes: 
Berycidae). Similar to its congener, 
the splendid alfonsino (B. splendens ), 
red bream have a circumglobal distri- 
bution in temperate to tropical waters 
and are commonly found on continen- 
tal shelves and slopes, seamounts, and 
oceanic ridges at depths of at least 
1240 m (Busakhin, 1982). The third 
species, B. mollis, is restricted to the 
western North Pacific region and is 
not further discussed in this article. 1 
Red bream and splendid alfonsino are 
commercially exploited wherever they 
occur in abundance, particularly in 
the eastern North Atlantic around 
the Macaronesian Islands (Large et 
al., 2003); in the Pacific around New 
Caledonia (Lehodey et al., 1997), New 
Zealand (Massey and Horn, 1990) 
and Japan (Adachi et al., 2000); 
and in the Indian Ocean on Saya de 
1 Because of the confusion created by 
regional differences in the use of common 
names for the Beryx species, the following 
nomenclature will be used throughout 
the rest of this article: B. decadactylus 
will be referred to by its American Fish- 
eries Society (AFS) common name “red 
bream” (Nelson et al., 2004; FAO common 
name “alfonsino”), B. splendens by its 
FAO common name “splendid alfonsino” 
(Froese and Pauly, 2008; AFS common 
name “alfonsino”), and the two collec- 
tively will be called “alfonsinos.” 
Malha Bank and around the Ker- 
guelen Islands. In the eastern North 
Atlantic, both alfonsino species are 
currently caught in a multispecies, 
multigear fishery that targets mainly 
blackspot seabream ( Pagellus bogara- 
veo) at depths of 200-600 m (ICES 2 ). 
In European waters alfonsinos are 
managed collectively because species- 
specific landings data rarely exist. 
The status of the European stocks 
is currently unknown owing to short 
catch time series, the lack of fishery- 
independent data, and unreliable esti- 
mates of mortality rates, but there are 
reports of serial depletion of alfonsino 
populations during the early years of 
the rapidly expanding deep-sea fisher- 
ies on and around seamounts in the 
eastern North Atlantic (Vinnichenko, 
1997; ICES 2 ). 
In the western North Atlantic, al- 
fonsinos are caught incidentally off 
the southeastern coast of the United 
States in the wreckfish ( Polyprion 
americanus) fishery. The fishery op- 
erates in an area of high topographic 
relief known as the Charleston Bump, 
located on the Blake Plateau south- 
2 ICES (International Council for the 
Exploration of the Sea). 2008. Report 
of the working group on the biology 
and assessment of deep-sea fisheries 
resources, 3—10 March 2008, ICES Head- 
quarters, Copenhagen. ICES CM 2008/ 
ACOM:14., 531 p. 
