Ayyildiz and Altin: Age and growth rates of the early life stages of Pagellus erythrinus 
187 
Table 3 
Parameters of the linear models for the relationship between total length (TL) and number of daily increments (age) for 
young-of-the-year common pandora (Pagellus erythrinus ) collected off Gokfeada, Turkey, during June 2013—June 2014. The 
number of specimens in), size and age range with standard error of the mean (SE), y-intercept (a), slope of the regression 
line ib), and coefficient of determination (r 2 ) are provided. Capture months during which less than 5 specimens were col¬ 
lected are not included. 
Number of 
daily increments 
Month of capture 
n 
Size (mm TL) 
SE 
(age) 
SE 
a 
b 
r 2 
P 
June 
42 
15-73 
1.97 
46-137 
3.14 
8.17 
0.54 
0.84 
<0.01 
July 
67 
42-63 
2.37 
38-151 
4.25 
8.06 
0.52 
0.96 
<0.01 
August 
34 
25-70 
2.08 
64-147 
3.85 
1.55 
0.46 
0.73 
<0.01 
October 
43 
13-98 
2.93 
42-182 
5.48 
7.30 
0.50 
0.97 
<0.01 
November 
66 
16-86 
1.88 
51-162 
2.79 
11.55 
0.53 
0.92 
<0.01 
All 
231 
12-110 
21.12 
38-242 
31.59 
8.41 
0.52 
0.93 
<0.01 
60 -I 
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 
Hatching date (month) 
Figure § 
Hatching-date frequency distributions back-calculated by using age esti¬ 
mates and sampling dates of young-of-the-year common pandora (Pagellus 
erythrinus) collected off Gokgeada, Turkey, during June 2013-June 2014. 
spring (March), and the second one was seen in sum¬ 
mer (August). The hatching times of common pandora 
were back-calculated to occur between February and 
October. 
Discussion 
This study provides the first estimates of daily age and 
growth rates for the YOY of common pandora. Distinct 
light and dark bands, which can be used for age de¬ 
termination, were observed in the examined otoliths of 
YOY common pandora. Daily increment formation in 
otoliths is a general phenomenon that has been vali¬ 
dated for many other species (Pannella, 1971; Campana 
and Neilson, 1985; Jones, 1992). Therefore, formation 
of increments on the otoliths of common pandora were 
assumed to occur daily. Campana (2001) suggested that 
acceptable levels for APE and CV were 5.5% and 7.6%, 
respectively. Therefore, our results (4.9% and 3.4%, re¬ 
spectively) are close to the acceptable values for both 
APE and CV. 
Our findings are consistent with those of Somarakis 
and Machias (2002), who reported that the mean sizes 
of common pandora increased with bottom depth be¬ 
cause smaller individuals were found in shallower and 
warmer waters. Few researchers have also addressed 
whether the decline in the number of older fish may 
