188 
Fishery Buiietin 11 6(2) 
not only be due to mortality but also partially to move¬ 
ments of larger fish to deeper waters (Harmelin-Vivien 
et al., 1995; Ayyildiz et al., 2015). 
No previous studies have used otolith microstruc¬ 
ture analysis on age and growth rates of the early life 
stages of the common pandora. Therefore, we compared 
the data from our study of common pandora at early 
life stages with lengths at age 0 reported for adult 
common pandora in previous studies. The results of a 
recent study by Somarakis and Machias (2002) indi¬ 
cate that common pandora can reach a size of 120 mm 
TL at age 0. Similarly, a specimen of common pandora 
with a size of 100 mm TL was found at age 0 by Pa- 
juelo and Lorenzo (1998). These results are supported 
by Ho§sucu and (lakir (2003), who found that average 
size at age 0 of common pandora was 77-78 mm TL 
and average size at 1 year of age was 117-119 mm TL. 
The results of our study match those observed in these 
earlier studies. 
It is possible to estimate the length of fish by using 
morphometric measurements of otoliths (Harvey et al., 
2000; Campana, 2004; Zan et al., 2015). Morphometric 
characteristics of the sagittal otoliths of YOY common 
pandora were linearly related to the logarithm of fish 
TL. Our results are consistent with those of other stud¬ 
ies and indicate that the relationships between fish TL 
and otolith morphometric measurements are usually 
log linear (Ayyildiz et al., 2014; Dehghani et al., 2016; 
Al-Busaidi et ah, 2017). However, according to Lleonart 
et al. (2000), the linear model is not appropriate be¬ 
cause it cannot detect changes in the shape of otoliths. 
The hatching times of common pandora were back- 
calculated to occur between February and October, and 
2 main cohorts were estimated to occur in the spring 
(March) and summer (August). This result broadly 
agrees with the findings of Ho§sucu and Qakir (2003) 
and Zarrad et al. (2010) that indicate that the repro¬ 
ductive season of common pandora extended from April 
to October. Several studies also have revealed that the 
duration of the reproductive season of common pandora 
extends from April to September and peak spawning 
activity occurs between June and August (Pajuelo and 
Lorenzo, 1998; Valdes et al., 2004). A recent study by 
Coelho et al. (2010) reported a similar reproductive 
spawning season from March to July. 
Acknowledgments 
This study was funded by The Scientific and Technolog¬ 
ical Research Council of Turkey (project no.: 112Y062). 
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