125 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Fishery Bulletin 
established in 1881 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Comparison of age and growth parameters of 
invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans ) across 
the northern Gulf of Mexico 
Email address for contact author: fogg.alex@gmail.com 
Abstract —Invasive red lionfish (Pter¬ 
ois volitans ) have spread rapidly 
throughout the northern Gulf of Mex¬ 
ico (GOM) partly because of their high 
growth rate. Red lionfish were col¬ 
lected from the northern GOM across 
3 ecological regions from 2012 through 
2015. For male and female red lion¬ 
fish, relationships between weight 
and total length (TL) were different 
by ecological region. Males achieved a 
greater mean weight adjusted for TL 
(333.6 g [standard error (SE) 3.6]) than 
females (195.1 g [SE 3.7]). A subsample 
of 1607 pairs of sagittal otoliths (from 
744 males, 716 females, and 147 fish 
of unknown or undetermined sex) was 
used to assign ages. Ages ranged from 
0.0 to 4.5 years (mean: 1.4 years), and 
these estimated ages and the dates 
of capture for specimens confirm the 
presence of red lionfish in the northern 
GOM in 2008, 2 years prior to the first 
detection of this species there. There 
were differences in age and growth 
between sexes within and among eco¬ 
logical regions, with males achieving 
higher growth rates and larger asymp¬ 
totic lengths than females (all compar¬ 
isons: P<0.01). These findings, coupled 
with other life history information, 
aid in discerning differences in distri¬ 
bution of red lionfish populations and 
are essential for creating management 
plans for mitigation of their effects on 
ecosystems. 
Manuscript submitted 31 July 2018. 
Manuscript accepted 7 June 2019. 
Fish. Bull. 117:125-139 (2019). 
Online publication date: 3 July 2019. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.117.3.1 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Alexander Q. Fogg (contact author ) 1 ' 2 
Joseph T. Evans 3 
Mark S. Peterson 1 
Nancy J. Brown-Peterson 4 
Eric R. Hoffmayer 5 
G. Walter Ingram Jr . 5 
1 Division of Coastal Sciences 
School of Ocean Science and Engineering 
University of Southern Mississippi 
703 East Beach Drive 
Ocean Springs, Mississippi 39564 
2 Okaloosa County Board of County 
Commissioners 
Emerald Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau 
1540 Miracle Strip Parkway 
Fort Walton Beach, Florida 32548 
3 Marine Resource Research Institute 
South Carolina Department of Natural 
Resources 
21 7 Fort Johnson Road 
Charleston, South Carolina 29412 
The invasive red lionfish (Pterois vol¬ 
itans) and devil firefish ( P. miles) have 
been reported as established in U.S. 
waters of the western North Atlan¬ 
tic Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea, 
and the red lionfish has been found in 
the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) (Morris and 
Akins, 2009; Schofield, 2010; Fogg et al., 
2017); however, the devil firefish has not 
yet been detected in the GOM (Johnson 
et al., 2016). It is difficult to distinguish 
between these 2 species except through 
genetic analysis, and data from previous 
studies are not necessarily separated 
by species. Therefore, throughout this 
paper, we use the term lionfish to refer 
to specimens that are not identified to 
species but are a potential combination 
of red lionfish, devil firefish, and hybrids 
between the 2 species. 
4 Center for Fisheries Research and Development 
School of Ocean Science and Engineering 
University of Southern Mississippi 
703 East Beach Drive 
Ocean Springs, Mississippi 39564 
5 Mississippi Laboratories 
Southeast Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
3209 Frederic Street 
Pascagoula, Mississippi 39567 
Lionfish were first documented in 
the United States off Dania Beach, 
on the eastern coast of Florida, in 
1985 (U.S. Geological Survey, Nonin- 
digenous Aquatic Species Database, 
website, accessed December 2015) 
and later documented in the GOM in 
2009 (Aguilar-Perera and Tuz-Sulub, 
2010; Nonindigenous Aquatic Species 
Database, accessed December 2015). 
By 2012, lionfish were commonly cap¬ 
tured in the northern GOM (Fogg et al., 
2013), and histological evidence of 
spawning-capable lionfish in the north¬ 
ern GOM was first observed from fish 
captured in May 2012 (Brown-Peterson 
and Hendon, 2013). Efforts to research 
lionfish species have increased as their 
invasion has expanded, but most work 
has focused on the effects of lionfish 
