Friess and Sedberry: Age, growth, and spawning season for Beryx decadacty/us 
27 
Table 2 
Estimated parameters and derived quantities from a deterministic coupled-functions model fitted to otolith radiocarbon series 
for red bream ( Beryx decadactylus) and haddock (Melanogrammus aegleftnus) from the North Atlantic (Campana, 1997). Param- 
eters are total inputted radiocarbon ( k ), mean year of increase (g), standard deviation of the cumulative normal (a), estimated 
timing of initial radiocarbon increase ( g-o ), exponential rate of decay (r), minimum radiocarbon level observed (y min ), and maxi- 
mum radiocarbon level that would occur in the absence ofr (y asym ). Standard deviations (SD) are giving in parentheses, y mm has 
no SD because it is an observed point, and v asym and k have the same SD. 
Species 
k (%o) 
g (year) 
G 
g-o (year) 
r 
y min 
y asym ^ 
Red bream 
150.97 (8.64) 
1967.94(0.75) 
4.87 (1..13) 
1963.07 (1.59) 
0 
-67.8 
83.17 
Haddock 
136.94 (6.24) 
1961.81 (0.26) 
3.93 (0.36) 
1957.88 (0.49) 
0.001 (0.004) 
-72.8 
64.14 
Table 3 
Estimates of natural mortality rates for red bream ( Beryx 
decadactylus). Maximum ages used for Hoenig’s estima- 
tor are 69 years based on otolith section interpretation 
and 49 years based on highest validated age in this study. 
and k used for Pauly’s equation were 583.1 mm and 
0.094/yr, respectively, from the combined-sex von Berta- 
lanffy growth function. The IGOR+ estimate is based on 
the random effects model with gamma-distributed popu- 
lation likelihood for all three readings and for both sexes 
combined. 
Model 
M (1/yr) 
Hoenig (1983) 
C, M = 69 y ears 
0.060 
^max = 49 years 
0.085 
Pauly (1980) 
T=8.85°C * 
0.097 
T=12.3°C t 
0.113 
T=15.0°C 1 
0.124 
IGOR+ 
0.060 
Average of the range (5.4-12.3°C) reported by Ross (2007) for 
southeastern U.S. deep-water coral habitat. 
T Mean bottom temperature recorded on Beryx fishing habitat 
during submersible dives in August 2003 and 2004 (G. Sed- 
berry, unpubl. data). 
Mean temperature recorded during submersible dives when red 
bream were present at site (G. Sedberry, unpubl. data). 
Discussion 
Age and growth 
The presence of semicrystalline fields in a number of 
red bream otoliths is indicative of a partial replace- 
ment of the normal aragonite crystalline structure by 
vaterite, a calcium carbonate isomorph that has optical 
properties different from aragonite. The presence of 
vaterite in fish otoliths gives them a glassy and more 
translucent appearance and can mask usual growth 
banding patterns (Tomas et ah, 2004; Solomon et ah, 
2006). Vaterite in red bream otoliths likely contributed 
to the aforementioned difficulties in aging that led to 
age estimation bias and lower aging precision than the 
average for otolith-derived age estimates reported by 
Campana (2001). The level of aging precision reported 
here for red bream was more similar to that achieved 
in other deep-sea teleost aging studies (Francis et ah, 
1998; Harris et ah, 2004; Filer and Sedberry, 2008). 
Even though interpretation error in the current 
study was present and significant, bomb radiocarbon 
