270 
10° 
Frequency (log10) 
= 
fo) 
2 
oO 
fo) 
— 
NL 
ro) 
- 
i) 
2 
oO 
© 
100 
Total length (mm) 
Fishery Bulletin 119(4) 
Frequency 
100 200 300 
Total length (mm) 
Figure 8 
Length—frequency distributions of black sea bass (Centropristis striata) from the Atlantic 
Ocean off the northeastern United States whose sagittal otoliths were used in marginal 
increment analysis and first annulus validation: (A) age-0 and age-1 fish captured in the 
fall (September and October 2016-2017) and (B) age-1 and age-2 fish captured in sum- 
mer (July and August 2015-2017). Length—frequency distributions are also presented 
for (C) black sea bass <220 mm in total length (TL) captured in the fall (September 
2016-2017) during the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (MA-DMF) resource 
assessment survey and (D) black sea bass <310 mm TL captured in summer (July and 
August 2015-2017) during the MA-DMF ventless trap survey. 
(Provost et al., 2017), that could also affect otolith growth 
in young age groups (<3 years) as well. Instead, the vari- 
ability in annulus deposition for AB3 in this study could 
be due to the difficulty of accurately measuring growth at 
the otolith edge of older fish. The decline in otolith growth 
with increasing age made it challenging to discern the 
start of translucent edge growth; therefore, an apparent 
delay in annulus deposition could be an artifact of the 
measurement method. Mercer (1978) noted a delay in 
annulus deposition in age-5 black sea bass captured off 
the mid-Atlantic coast; however, sample sizes were low, 
and whole otoliths were used. As discussed previously, 
measurements on whole otoliths are less precise because 
of diffuse banding patterns and otolith curvature. 
Otolith annulus deposition for black sea bass in the 
northern stock has been reported to occur in a range 
of months, from May and June (Dery and Mayo, 1988; 
Robillard et al.?) to August (Alexander, 1981). Mercer 
(1978) concluded that opaque deposition occurred in April 
and May, but the results from that study were highly vari- 
able; the drop in mean marginal increment in that study 
occurred from March through July in the ages examined 
(ages 1-5). Wenner et al. (1986) conducted marginal incre- 
ment analysis on otoliths from black sea bass in the south- 
ern Atlantic stock and found that annual deposition of 
growth bands occurred in April and May for ages 0-10 com- 
bined. The timing of annulus deposition on otoliths from 
black sea bass in our study appears to generally agree with 
these previous reports (spring or early summer); however, 
detailed comparisons were difficult because of limitations 
in sampling locations, gear types, age range representation, 
or sample sizes in these studies. 
First annulus validation 
None of the previously mentioned published works on aging 
of black sea bass in the northern stock include validation 
of the first annulus. Hales and Able (1995) and McBride 
et al. (2018) conducted studies to validate the otolith daily 
aging method; however, in both studies fish less than 1 year 
old were used. Marginal increment analysis can be used 
to verify annual banding deposition patterns in an aging 
structure; however, if the first annulus had not been vali- 
dated, values produced by using that aging method could 
have been incorrect by a consistent amount. In this study, 
the location of the first annulus was validated by measur- 
ing annuli on otoliths from YOY: the mean measurement 
for the first annulus in age-1 samples was larger than the 
expected total radius of an age-0 fish caught in the previ- 
ous fall. Additionally, the first annulus measurements from 
