AGE, GROWTH AND OTOLITH BIOMETRY-BODY LENGTH RELATIONSHIPS OF RED BANDFISH (Cepola macrophthalma L., 1758) IN THE SEA OF MARMARA, TURKEY

Abstract

The age, growth, and the otolith biometry-total length relationships of Cepola macrophthalma (Linnaeus, 1758) were investigated. The individuals were caught with beam trawl in the Sea of Marmara from March 2012 to June 2014. The individual with 51.5 cm total length sampled in this study was recorded as the new maximum size of C. macrophthalma in the Marmara Sea. The length-weight relationship showed negative allometric growth with a 1.36 b value. Otolith length-otolith weight, otolith width-otolith weight, otolith length-total length, otolith width-total length, otolith length-otolith width and total length-otolith weight relationships were found as OW=0.0002*OL2.6377 (R2=0.91), OW=0.001*OWi2.6215 (R2=0.94), O=0.057*TL+3.2087 (R2=0.57), OWi=0.0316*TL+1.8511 (R2=0.55), OWi=0.527*OL+0.2015 (R2=0.86), OW=0.0004*TL+0.0029 (R2=0.58), respectively. Ages were estimated from 80 otolith readings and the minimum and maximum ages observed were 1 and 5 years, respectively. The growth parameters of the von Bertalanffy equation were calculated as L∞=61.95 cm, K=0.19 year-1, t0 = -0.05 years. A great majority of the stock (77%) consisted of younger individuals (1-2 age groups). Cepola macrophthalma stock consisted of mainly younger individuals which may indicate that an effective fishing pressure is effective on the stock.

Keywords

• red bandfish
• the marmara sea
• lenght-weight
• growth
• age