320 
Fishery Bulletin 117(4) 
Table 7 
Proportion of adult female (active and inactive) snowy grouper (HyporthocLus niveatus) that 
were spawning daily, by age group. Specimens were collected during spawning season (April- 
September) off North and South Carolina in 1979-2012. Age groups are based on counts of 
annual increments from otolith readings. Spawners had at least one indicator of imminent 
or recent spawning (i.e., oocyte maturation, ovulated eggs, or postovulatory complexes). Sam¬ 
pling period was the time (in days) from which representative samples of data were taken. 
Values of spawning proportion have been proportionally reduced to a 24-h period. n/a=not 
applicable. 
Age 
group 
Adult 
females in) 
Spawning 
proportion 
(24 h) 
Sampling 
period (d) 
Spawning 
season 
duration (d) 
Spawning 
interval (d) 
No. of 
batches 
3-4 
24 
0.03 
160 
1 
n/a 
n/a 
5-6 
208 
0.11 
178 
130 
8.8 
15 
7-8 
305 
0.14 
178 
165 
7.1 
23 
9-10 
135 
0.15 
175 
159 
6.6 
24 
11-35 
96 
0.14 
175 
157 
7.3 
22 
Total 
768 
0.13 
153 
7.6 
20 
4 - 
0 5 10 15 20 25 
Lunar day 
Figure 8 
Effect on spawning probability in female snowy grouper 
(Hyporthodus niveatus) by lunar day from the use of the 
generalized additive model with a binomial error distri¬ 
bution. The gray area represents 95% confidence inter¬ 
vals. Tick marks above the x-axis line represent days for 
which data were available. The new moon day was defined 
as day 0, and the full moon was defined as day 15. Data 
used in the model came from specimens (n=371) captured 
during the spawning seasons (April-September) in 1981- 
2012 off North and South Carolina. 
Acknowledgments 
We sincerely appreciate the efforts of all personnel with 
the partners (MARMAP, SEAMAP-SA, and SEFIS) of the 
Southeast Reef Fish Survey, research vessels, Little River 
Fish House, and Carolina Seafood to collect and process 
samples. Special thanks go to Captain S. Shelley, F/V 
Mollie D , for collaborating with us. Funding was provided 
by the NOAA Cooperative Research Program, MARMAP 
Program (NA11NMF4540174), and SEAMAP-SA Reef 
Fish Complement (NA11NMF4350043). This is contri¬ 
bution no. 805 of the South Carolina Marine Resources 
Center. 
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