Life history of the red-banded seabream Pagrus auriga (Sparidae) from the coasts of the Canarian archipelago

Abstract

Red-banded seabreamPagrus auriga(N¼615) were caughtoff the Canary Islands from January 2003 to December 2004.Total length ranged from 120 to 780 mm. The species wascharacterized by protogynous hermaphroditism. The male :female ratio was in favour of females (1 : 8.2). The reproduc-tive season extended from September to February, with a peakin spawning activity in October–November. Fifty percentagematurity was reached at 387 mm total length by females and533 mm by males. The length–weight relationship for allindividuals was described by the parameters:a¼0.0086 andb¼3.014, when length is given in mm and weight in grams.Otolith age readings indicated that the population consists of19 age groups, including a very high proportion of individualsbetween 0 and 7 years old. Growth analysis reveals thatthe species is slow-growing and relatively long lived (18 years).The von Bertalanffy growth parameters for the entirepopulation were:L¥¼803 mm,k¼0.081 year)1andt0¼)2.17 year. Growth differed between males and females.The instantaneous rate of natural mortality for all fish was:M¼0.164 year)1.