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Fishery Bulletin 96(3), 1998 
maximum age at 35 years. Unfortunately, these 
studies relied on scales to age black drum. Fur- 
thermore, Beamish and McFarlane (1983) re- 
ported that scales were not a reliable hard part 
to age older fish of many species. Hence, the 
use of scales for ageing black drum in the Chesa- 
peake Bay region may give unreliable results. 
Only one recent study of black drum life his- 
tory has focused on the Chesapeake Bay region; 
more work has been done in Florida and Gulf 
of Mexico waters. Pearson ( 1929) first described 
the early life stages for black drum in Texas 
waters. Egg and larval distributions have been 
reported (Jannke, 1971; Holt et al., 1985; Ditty, 
1986), as well as adult distributions (Cody et 
al., 1978; Ross et al., 1983). Recent studies, 
based on otolith ageing, report maximum ages 
of 43 years in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Beck- 
man et al., 1990) and 58 years off the northeast 
coast of Florida (Murphy and Taylor, 1989). Al- 
though Pearson ( 1929) described spawning mi- 
grations of fish over 80 cm, most young fish 
show little movement between embayments 
(Osburn and Matlock, 1984). 
This paper describes fundamental biological 
characteristics of black drum in the Chesapeake 
Bay region that support stock unity of east coast 
fish. These data can be used as a basis for yield 
modeling and evaluation of black drum’s resil- 
ience to harvest. We present the first otolith- 
based age determination for Chesapeake Bay 
black drum, which includes characteristics of 
catch, growth, and mortality. We compare these life 
history parameters with those derived from other 
geographic regions. 
Methods 
Black drum (n=853) were collected March through 
June, 1990-92, from commercial and recreational 
fisheries on the eastern shore of Virginia where more 
than 90% of the catch is landed (Jones et al., 1990). 
Commercial landing sites were located at Willis 
Wharf, Oyster, and Bayford; recreational sites were 
at Cape Charles and Cherrystone Point (Fig. 1). Fish- 
ermen were asked for the location of their catches. 
Collection sites were visited daily once the first land- 
ings were made. Additionally, in the fall of 1990 and 
1992, we obtained juveniles (n=10) from special sam- 
pling of pound nets near the bay mouth. 
Fish were sexed and measured for total length (TL), 
standard length (SL), total weight (TW), gonad 
weight (GW), girth at the preopercle (Gl), and maxi- 
mum girth (G2). Sagittal otoliths, dorsal spines, and 
Figure 1 
Map of Chesapeake Bay showing Chesapeake Bay region sampling sites. 
fin rays were taken from each specimen. One otolith, 
chosen randomly from each pair, was transversely 
sectioned through the core on a Beuhler low-speed 
Isomet saw. Three sections of about 300-m thickness 
were mounted with Flo-texx mounting medium on a 
slide and read under a dissecting microscope ( lOx) 
with transmitted light and bright field. Dorsal spines 
and fin rays were processed similarly (10-40x) but 
sectioned perpendicular to the long axis of the growth 
plane, close to the base. To compare hard parts, we 
read random sections without knowledge of length 
or collection date of specimen. 
Ages were assigned on the basis of counts of an- 
nuli. We call them presumptive annuli in this paper 
because we have not completed validation of ages 
44-59. However, otolith annuli have been validated 
to age 43 in the Gulf of Mexico through marginal 
increment analysis (Beckman et al., 1990; Fitzhugh 
and Beckman 1 ), and we have recently shown corre- 
1 Fitzhugh, G. R., and D. W. Beckman. 1987. Age, growth and 
reproductive biology of black drum in Louisiana waters. Coastal 
Fisheries Institute, Center for Wetland Resources, Louisiana State 
University, Final Report of Funded projects FY 1986—1987, 89 p. 
