426 
Fishery Bulletin 96(3), 1 998 
Koenig et al., 1996)? Would oocytes hydrate and then 
be resorbed if there was no male in close proximity? 
Can gag spawn as females early in the spawning sea- 
son, change sex, and then spawn as males late in the 
same season, as suggested for red grouper, Epin- 
ephelus morio, by Moe (1969)? Would measurement 
of hormones be a better indicator of the state of tran- 
sition than our histological examination? Does the 
possibility that sex change in serranids may occur 
quickly (captive Anthias squamipinnis changed from 
female to male in two weeks [Fishelson, 1970]) ex- 
plain why our number of possible early transitional 
males was low? Questions such as these can only be 
answered with specifically designed laboratory and 
field studies. 
Acknowledgments 
We are indebted to many persons and organizations. 
Several commercial fishermen in the Panama City, 
Florida, area allowed us to sample their catches, in- 
cluding Captains Ray Ward, Sigurd Smeby, Mark 
Raffield, Mike Raffield, Dannie Lee, and Steve 
Smeby. Jerry and Carl Anderson let us routinely 
sample their seafood markets at Panama City Beach. 
Charterboat captains Bill Archer and Charles 
Paprocki also participated in sampling. Special 
thanks are extended to NMFS Fishery Reporting 
Specialist Debbie Fable for her help in the field. Bruce 
Thompson, Jeff Render (deceased), and Cheryl 
Crowder (Louisiana State University) advised us on 
methods and ovarian histology. Lewis Bullock, Ron 
Taylor, and Ruth Reece (Florida Marine Research 
Institute, St. Petersburg) effectively helped with sam- 
pling, methods, and histology. David Wyanski (South 
Carolina Dep. Natural Resources, Charleston) as- 
sisted with identification of transitional males. Re- 
views by Felicia Coleman, Gary Fitzhugh, Yvonne 
Sadovy, and Lewis Bullock greatly improved the 
manuscript. Technical support was provided by An- 
drew David, John Brusher, Chris Keim, Marc Remy, 
Sean Murray, Mike Strohmenger, John Dahl, Sandra 
Neidetcher, Guy Pizzuti, and Sara Heath (NMFS, 
Panama City). Carol Parker and Betsy Black typed 
many drafts of this ms. This research was funded by 
the MARFIN (Marine Fisheries Initiative) Program 
of the NMFS, Southeast Region (Grant #94 MFIH09). 
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