468 
Fishery Bulletin 11 5(4) 
Month 
12 3 4 
8 9-12 
tx m 
Pearson 
residuals: 
100 
- 4.0 
2.0 
- 0 0 
- - 2.0 
-- -3 9 
... . P<0.0001 
Figure 5 
Mosaic plot of results from the loglinear model used to evaluate the relationship between geographic zone 
and month of recapture of cobia (Rachycentron canadum) in the Gulf of Mexico during 1988-2014. The 
shading indicates the magnitude of the Pearson residuals for the frequency of recapture in a specific month, 
with the 2 darkest shades indicating a statistically different frequency of recapture in a specific month 
compared with other months in a specific zone (P<0.0001). The dashed lines represent negative Pearson 
residuals, and the solid lines represent positive Pearson residuals. The length and width dimensions of 
each rectangle indicates the number of recaptures in a specific zone (width) in a specific month (length) 
in relation to the total number of recaptures. The 6 zones in the Gulf of Mexico are Texas (TX), Louisiana 
(LA), northcentral Gulf of Mexico (NcGOM), Florida panhandle (FLPH), Florida Gulf Coast (FLGC), and 
the Florida Keys (FLK). 
Seasonal distribution A strong seasonal trend in cobia 
recaptures was observed with a large portion of win¬ 
ter recaptures occurring in the Florida Keys zone and 
summer recaptures occurring in the northcentral Gulf 
of Mexico and Louisiana zones. The largest number of 
recaptures in the Louisiana and northcentral Gulf of 
Mexico zones occurred from May through August. The 
saturated loglinear model was not significant (% 2 : 0.0, 
P=l) and upon removal of the interaction term, the 
model became significant (x 2 : 465.6, P<0.001), indicat¬ 
ing there was a significant association between recap¬ 
ture zone and month of recapture. Specifically, based 
on the Pearson residuals and resulting mosaic plot, the 
frequency of cobia recaptures in the Florida Keys zone 
was significantly lower from May to August and signifi¬ 
cantly greater from November to March than for other 
months (Fig. 5). Additionally, the frequency of cobia re¬ 
captures in the northcentral Gulf of Mexico zone was 
significantly lower from December to April and signifi¬ 
cantly greater in September and October than for other 
months (Fig. 5). In the Louisiana zone, the frequency 
of cobia recaptures was significantly greater from June 
to August than in other months, in the Texas zone, the 
frequency of cobia recaptures was significantly greater 
in June, and in the Florida panhandle zone the fre¬ 
quency of recaptures was significantly greater in April 
than in other months and lower in July and August 
(Fig. 5). 
Mortality 
An annual recovery matrix containing 27 years of tag- 
recovery data was used to determine estimates of S 
and /’parameters in the software program MARK. Only 
individuals that were not rereleased (i.e., were har¬ 
vested) and whose dates of tagging and recapture were 
reported were used in the analysis (n=903). Four can¬ 
didate models were evaluated, each having a unique 
combination of time-dependent and time-independent 
survivorship and tag-recovery (Table 5). Global model 
fit, for the Sit) and fit ) parameters, was evaluated by 
using c. The estimated value of c determined from the 
goodness-of-fit simulation was 2.02 and indicated some 
overdispersion. The best supported candidate model in¬ 
cluded S(.) and fit) parameters (Table 5). The estimate 
of annual survival from the most supported model was 
0.56 (95% Cl: 0.53-0.58). This value is equivalent to 
an annual Z of 0.59/year (95% Cl: 0.55-0.63). The an- 
