Age and growth of the pink dentex Dentex gibbosus (Rafinesque, 1810) caught off the Madeira Archipelago

Abstract

Age and growth of the pink dentex Dentex gibbosus (Rafinesque, 1810) caught off the Madeira Archipelago ADRIANA ALVES & JOANA VASCONCELOS Alves, A. & J. Vasconcelos 2012. Age and growth of the pink dentex Dentex gibbosus (Rafinesque, 1810) caught off the Madeira Archipelago. Arquipelago. Life and Marine Sciences 30: 1-9. A total of 146 otoliths were extracted for age readings from 68 females (23.2-90.1 cm TL), 76 males (22.0-81.3 cm TL) and 2 undetermined (30.3-38.0 cm TL), between April 2004 and December 2007. The maximum age obtained from whole otoliths was 11 years. Differences in the growth rhythms were observed between the sexes (females: L∞=134.4, K=0.092 and t0=−0.406; males: L∞=135.9, K=0.078 and t0=−0.894; and all fish were: L∞=149.8, K=0.078 and t0=−0.784). Pink dentex attain 50% of their maximum theoretical length during their fourth year of life. The weight-length relationship (W = q Lfb) were determined separately for each sex and for all fish: for females q=0.01094 and b=3.033, for males q=0.10002 and b=3.047 and for all, q=0.01027 and b=3.046. According to the F-test, there were no significant differences between the weight-length relations obtained for females and males (F-test, F=2.2526, p=0.06646)