424 
Fishery Bulletin 96(3), 1998 
abundant in these years. This finding is corroborated 
by studies of Johnson and Koenig (in press), wherein 
abundance of age-0 gag in north Florida seagrass 
beds was higher in 1991 and 1993 than it was in 
1992 and 1994. Johnson and Koenig (in press) also 
found that an alternating pattern of abundance was 
evident in the age structure of the gag fishery from 
1984 through 1989, with odd years producing domi- 
nant year classes, if the same number of females are 
assumed to spawn each year. 
Table 3 
Spawning frequency estimates (SFEs) by age and year for 
female gag (>total length (TL) of smallest female with hy- 
drated oocytes (HOs) or postovulatory follicles (POFs) dur- 
ing the spawning season). 
Age (yr) 
Year 
n 
n with 
HOs/POFs 
% with 
HOs/POFs 
SFE 
2 
91 
0 
— 
— 
— 
93 
6 
0 
0 
0 
94 
1 
1 
100.0 
57 
3 
91 
9 
0 
0 
0 
93 
119 
8 
6.7 
6 
94 
8 
1 
12.5 
7 
4 
91 
20 
6 
30.0 
28 
93 
10 
2 
20.0 
17 
94 
78 
8 
10.3 
6 
5 
91 
105 
28 
26.7 
25 
93 
34 
6 
17.6 
15 
94 
8 
1 
12.5 
7 
6 
91 
8 
2 
25.0 
23 
93 
13 
4 
30.8 
26 
94 
12 
3 
25.0 
14 
7 
91 
13 
1 
7.7 
7 
93 
28 
13 
46.4 
40 
94 
2 
0 
0 
0 
8 
91 
6 
1 
16.7 
16 
93 
6 
5 
83.3 
71 
94 
8 
2 
25.0 
14 
9 
91 
9 
4 
44.4 
41 
93 
1 
1 
100.0 
85 
94 
2 
0 
0 
0 
10-12 
91 
2 
1 
50.0 
47 
93 
0 
— 
— 
— 
94 
3 
1 
33.0 
19 
16 
91 
1 
0 
0 
0 
93 
0 
— 
— 
— 
94 
0 
— 
— 
— 
26 
91 
1 
0 
0 
0 
93 
0 
— 
— 
— 
94 
0 
— 
— 
— 
3-26 
91 
174 
43 
24.7 
23 
2-9 
93 
217 
39 
18.0 
15 
2-12 
94 
122 
17 
13.9 
8 
The scarcity of nondegenerating POFs and the rela- 
tively low r 2 values of regression equations suggest 
that some of our annual fecundity estimates are low, 
a problem prevalent in some past studies on other 
species (Nieland and Wilson, 1993; Taylor and 
Murphy, 1992). The age of POFs is an important fac- 
tor in judging whether POFs in a sample are from 
the same spawn as that for hydrated oocytes 
(Fitzhugh and Hettler, 1995). Delayed preservation 
in formalin may have caused some incompletely 
spawned ovaries to appear fully hydrated (if the frag- 
ile POFs were lost [Hunter et al., 1985], thus caus- 
ing low estimates of batch fecundity, spawning fre- 
Table 4 
Data used for gag annual fecundity estimation, 1991-94. 
SFE=spawning frequency estimate by age and year. 
Catch date 
Total 
length 
(mm) 
Age 
(yr) 
Batch 
fecundity 
estimate 
SFE 
Annual 
fecundity 
estimate 
1991 
21 Mar 
820 
5 
265,294 
25 
6,632,350 
5 Apr 
732 
4 
82,183 
28 
2,301,124 
5 Apr 
755 
5 
176,552 
25 
4,413,800 
5 Apr 
810 
5 
208,438 
25 
5,210,950 
8 Apr 
830 
5 
243,231 
25 
6,080,775 
8 Apr 
870 
5 
276,416 
25 
6,910,400 
8 Apr 
710 
5 
144,265 
25 
3,606,625 
1993 
25 Feb 
870 
7 
335,275 
40 
13,411,000 
25 Feb 
1065 
7 
657,268 
40 
26,290,720 
25 Feb 
1038 
8 
865,295 
71 
61,435,945 
25 Feb 
950 
8 
696,251 
71 
49,433,821 
20 Mar 
860 
7 
772,158 
40 
30,886,320 
21 Mar 
878 
8 
368,974 
71 
26,197,154 
21 Mar 
914 
8 
510,637 
71 
36,255,227 
22 Mar 
983 
7 
661,993 
40 
26,479,720 
23 Mar 
1000 
8 
834,425 
71 
59,244,175 
23 Mar 
930 
6 
625,159 
26 
16,254,134 
28 Mar 
762 
3 
191,767 
6 
1,150,602 
29 Mar 
920 
5 
302,604 
15 
4,539,060 
29 Mar 
715 
3 
208,878 
6 
1,253,268 
29 Mar 
740 
3 
10,864 
6 
65,184 
29 Mar 
820 
5 
484,514 
15 
7,267,710 
29 Mar 
900 
5 
458,392 
15 
6,875,880 
29 Mar 
930 
6 
633,481 
26 
16,470,506 
29 Mar 
995 
7 
635,329 
40 
25,413,160 
29 Mar 
940 
7 
717,445 
40 
28,697,800 
3 Apr 
700 
3 
304,997 
6 
1,829,982 
3 Apr 
735 
3 
224,684 
6 
1,348,104 
1994 
15 Mar 
846 
4 
428,371 
6 
2,570,226 
15 Mar 
690 
4 
187,216 
6 
1,123,296 
15 Mar 
827 
5 
310,357 
7 
2,172,499 
15 Mar 
910 
6 
487,719 
14 
6,828,066 
6 Apr 
1008 
8 
249,162 
14 
3,488,268 
