Age, growth, and mortality of littlehead porgy, Calamus proridens, from southeast Florida coastal waters

Sectioned otoliths were used to age littlehead porgy Calamus proridens (n = 737) from southeastern Florida recreational fisheries. Otolith sections contained easily identifiable annuli and were reliable structures for aging littlehead porgy up to 11 yrs. Opaque zones were deposited from March to June (peaking in April). Littlehead porgy ranged from 1 to 11 yrs and 220 to 385 mm total length (TL). Body size relationships were TL = 1.09 FL + 16.06 (n = 3474, r2 = 0.95), FL = 0.87 TL - 1.15 (n = 3474, r2 = 0.95), W = 4.76 x 10 -5 TL2.8 0 (n = 6722, r2 = 0.86), and W = 1.2 x 10-4 FL2.71 (n = 3474, r2 = 0.90), where W is total weight (g) and FL is fork length (mm). Growth was not significantly different between two discrete geographic regions of Florida, and the von Bertalanffy growth equation was Lt = 335 (1 - e-0.41 (t + 2.13)) for all areas combined. The point estimate of natural mortality was M = 0.38, while age-specific estimates of M ranged from 0.60 to 0.41 yrs-1 for ages 1-11. Littlehead porgy were fully recruited to the headboat fishery by age3 and catch curve analysis resulted in an estimate of total mortality Z = 1.08 for ages 3-7+. This study reports first estimates of life history parameters for littlehead porgy from Atlantic waters of the southeastern United States.