322 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service Fishery Bulletin 
NOAA ^ established in 1881 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U S Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Abstract —The paucity of species- 
specific biological information for 
most exploited Indo-Pacific deepwa¬ 
ter snappers (Lutjanidae) limits stock 
assessment options and management 
strategies. To improve stock assessments, 
age-based demographics were esti¬ 
mated for 2 deepwater snapper species, 
the goldeneye jobfish (Pristipomoides 
flavipinnis) in the Samoa Archipelago 
and the goldflag jobfish (P. auricilla ) in 
the Mariana Archipelago. Each archi¬ 
pelago has locations where fishing had 
not occurred for at least 30 years, pro¬ 
viding a rare opportunity to examine 
the effects of exploitation on the age and 
size compositions, growth, and mortal¬ 
ity of these species. Overall, age-based 
data reveal a greater effect of fishing 
pressure than those based on size. This 
difference highlights concerns with 
size-based analyses; when species have 
protracted asymptotic growth trajecto¬ 
ries, the resulting fishing impacts may 
not be readily apparent in size-based 
analyses because size and age become 
decoupled. This decoupling also con¬ 
founds comparisons of growth among 
areas with different exploitation levels. 
Mortality estimates derived from an 
age-based catch curve for the unfished 
areas (where total mortality equals 
natural mortality) were comparable to 
those produced by using a maximum- 
age-based natural mortality estimator. 
The comparison of these methods indi¬ 
cates that the age-based natural mor¬ 
tality estimator is suitable for use in 
deepwater snapper stock assessments 
when direct measures of natural mor¬ 
tality are unavailable. 
Manuscript submitted 6 June 2019. 
Manuscript accepted 1 November 2019. 
Fish. Bull. 117:322-336 (2019). 
Online publication date: 22 November 2019. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.117.4.5 
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. 
Effects of exploitation evident in age-based 
demography of 2 deepwater snappers, the 
goldeneye jobfish (Pristipomoides flavipinnis) 
in the Samoa Archipelago and the goldflag jobfish 
(P. auricilla) in the Mariana Archipelago 
Joseph M. O'Malley (contact author ) 1 Brett Taylor 4 
Corey B. Wakefield 2 Ashley J. Williams 5 ' 6 
Zack S. Oyafuso 3 Maria Sapatu 7 
Ryan S. Nichols 1 Michael Marsik 8 
Email address for contact author: joseph.omalley@noaa.gov 
1 Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
1845 Wasp Boulevard, Building 1 76 
Honolulu, Hawaii 96818 
2 Science and Research Division 
Department of Primary Industries and 
Regional Development 
39 Northside Drive 
Hillarys, Western Australia 6025, Australia 
3 Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology 
School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology 
University of Hawaii at Manoa 
46-007 Lilipuna Road 
Kaneohe, Hawaii 96744 
4 Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research 
University of Hawaii at Manoa 
1000 Pope Road, Marine Science Building 312 
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 
b Oceanic Fisheries Programme 
Pacific Community 
BP D5 
98848 Noumea, New Caledonia 
6 Australian Bureau of Agricultural and 
Resource Economics and Sciences 
Department of Agriculture 
G.P.O. Box 858 
Canberra City, Australian Capital 
Territory 2600, Australia 
7 Fisheries Division 
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries 
PO. Box 1874 
Apia, Samoa 
8 Pacific Islands Regional Office 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
1845 Wasp Boulevard, Building 176 
Honolulu, Hawaii 96818 
Many Indo-Pacific fisheries that tar¬ 
get tropical and subtropical deepwater 
snappers (Lutjanidae) are considered 
data poor with limited fisheries infor¬ 
mation and few reliable, detailed 
life history studies (Williams et al., 
2012, 2013; Newman et al., 2015). The 
available information indicates that 
Pristipomoides species have long life 
spans (>30 years), slow to moderate 
growth rates, and low levels of natural 
mortality (Newman et al. 1 ; Newman 
1 Newman, S. J., D. Evans, and R. Ashworth. 
2000. Assessment of the outer-shelf fishery 
and Dunk, 2003; Andrews et al., 2012). 
These attributes equate to low to 
medium fisheries potential (Musick, 
1999; Newman et al., 2016), a level 
of potential that makes these species 
inherently vulnerable to, and slow to 
recover from, overexploitation (Koslow 
et al., 2000; Clarke et al., 2003). This 
combination of limited fisheries data 
resources off the Pilbara coast of tropical 
Western Australia. Final Report to the 
Fisheries Research and Development Cor¬ 
poration, Proj. No. 97/138, 78 p. Fish. West. 
Australia, North Beach, Australia. [Avail¬ 
able from website.] 
