374 
Fishery Bulletin 115(3) 
Table 4 
Akaike and Bayesian information criterion (AIC and BIC) values and Akaike weight of evi- 
dence ( w ) for the 7 growth models applied to the age data of the narrownose smooth-hound 
{Mustelus schmitti) captured in 2008 in Anegada Bay, Argentina. VBGF=von Bertalanfy 
growth function. 
Growth model 
Females 
Males 
AIC 
BIC 
w 
AIC 
BIC 
w 
Original VBGF 
1396.4 
1407.9 
0.22 
1213.5 
1224.4 
0.14 
Traditional VBGF 
1396.4 
1407.9 
0.22 
1213.5 
1224.4 
0.14 
Fixed-Lo VBGF 
1401.6 
1410.3 
0.02 
1212.4 
1220.6 
0.24 
Francis 
1396.4 
1407.9 
0.22 
1213.5 
1224.4 
0.14 
Mooij 
1401.6 
1410.3 
0.02 
1212.4 
1220.6 
0.24 
Gompertz 
1396.9 
1408.4 
0.17 
1214.9 
1225.8 
0.07 
Logistic 
1397.5 
1409.0 
0.13 
1216.3 
1227.2 
0.03 
abundant (Menni, 1985; Lopez Cazorla, 1987; Batista, 
1988; Massa and Lasta 2 ; Hozbor et. al. 6 ). Some authors 
have reported maximum sizes for this species of up 
to 1020 mm TL, but fish in their studies were found 
in populations that inhabited open waters (Hozbor et 
al. 6 ); all published studies conducted on populations in- 
habiting the coastal areas of Argentina have reported 
size ranges similar to those of our study (Chiaramonte 
and Pettovello, 2000; Sidders et al., 2005; Segura and 
Milessi, 2009). It is because of this similarity in size 
ranges that we consider our findings representative 
Table 5 
Akaike and Bayesian information criterion (AIC and 
BIC) values and Akaike weight of evidence ( w ) for 8 
different versions of the original von Bertalanffy growth 
function model used for the comparison of growth be- 
tween sexes: L„, L 0 , K, the growth model where L 0 , 
and K are different between sexes; L„, K, the growth 
model where both and K are different between sexes; 
L„, L 0 , the growth model where both L„ and L 0 are differ- 
ent between sexes; L 0 , K, the growth model where both 
L 0 and K are different between sexes; only L„, the growth 
model where only L„ is different among sexes; only K, 
the growth model where only K is different among sexes; 
only L 0 , the growth model where only L 0 is different 
among sexes; and none, the growth model where all pa- 
rameters are equal for both females and males. 
Models 
AIC 
BIC 
w 
U, U, K 
2607.85 
2632.36 
<0.001 
L„,K 
2607.29 
2628.30 
0.005 
L w L 0 
2607.89 
2628.89 
0.003 
UK 
2607.83 
2628.84 
0.004 
Only 
2605.89 
2623.40 
0.053 
Only K 
2605.88 
2623.39 
0.053 
Only L 0 
2605.89 
2623.39 
0.053 
None 
2603.89 
2617.90 
0.829 
of and applicable to other coastal populations of nar- 
rownose smooth-hound. 
Another important aspect of any age and growth 
study on fish is verification of the estimated param- 
eters (Goldman et al., 2012). Verification of estimated 
age and growth parameters have been undertaken for 
several species of the Mustelus genus (i.e., Cailliet et 
al., 1990; Yudin and Cailliet, 1990; Moulton et al., 1992; 
Goosen and Smale, 1997; Farrell et al., 2010). This ge- 
nus deposits growth bands annually, and the deposi- 
tion of translucent bands occurs during summer-au- 
tumn (Cailliet et al., 1990; Yudin and Cailliet, 1990; 
Moulton et al., 1992; Goosen and Smale, 1997; Farrell 
et al., 2010); our results on narrownose smooth-hound 
correspond with this finding. Moreover, the associated 
notching pattern observed in our study was similar to 
patterns reported for other species of Mustelus (i.e., 
Moulton et al., 1992; Conrath et al., 2002; Farrell et 
al., 2010). The precision in interpreting these growth 
bands was also high between readers and within read- 
ers, providing confidence in the reproducibility of our 
results. The lack of an adequate number of older sharks 
in our sample might have led to an underestimation of 
L x ; however, the similarity of estimates between our 
observational data and the back-calculated data for- 
tunately indicates that our sample size was adequate. 
The lower SE values for the back calculations, com- 
pared with the SE values for the observational data, 
indicate that these calculations may accurately reflect 
the growth parameters for narrownose smooth-hound. 
Nevertheless, it is important to note that for back-cal- 
culated results, it is assumed that growth is constant 
and does not change over time (Goldman et al., 2012). 
The maximum age determined for narrownose 
smooth-hound in our study is similar to ages reported 
for some species of Mustelus (Cailliet et al., 1990; Yu- 
din and Cailliet, 1990; Farrell et al., 2010) and is lower 
than age ranges determined for larger Mustelus species 
(Yudin and Cailliet, 1990; Moulton et al., 1992; Goosen 
and Smale, 1997; Conrath et al., 2002; Farrell et al., 
