Age and Growth of Reef Fish

Age structure is essential information for monitoring a population's status and recruitment history. This project develops age-length keys and age-length relationships for several reef species such as gag grouper, red grouper, red porgy, and red, gray and yellowtail snapper. For gag grouper, comparison of recent data to a survey more than a decade old has allowed an analysis of the changes in age structure in conjunction with changes in fishing mortality.