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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Age and growth estimates of the blue shark Prionace glauca in the central South Pacific Ocean

Shoou-Jeng Joung A B , Guann-Tyng Lyu A , Hua-Hsun Hsu A B D , Kwang-Ming Liu B C E and Shyh-Bin Wang C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-Ning Road, Keelung 20224, Taiwan, Republic of China.

B George Chen Shark Research Center, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-Ning Road, Keelung 20224, Taiwan, Republic of China.

C Institute of Marine Affairs and Resource Management, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-Ning Road, Keelung 20224, Taiwan, Republic of China.

D Present address: Marine Studies Section, Center for Environment and Water, Research Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Postal Box 2094, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia.

E Corresponding author. Email: kmliu@mail.ntou.edu.tw

Marine and Freshwater Research 69(9) 1346-1354 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF17098
Submitted: 12 April 2017  Accepted: 26 January 2018   Published: 22 May 2018

Abstract

The age and growth of the blue shark Prionace glauca in the central South Pacific is described based on 267 specimens that were collected by scientific observers on board Taiwanese large-scale tuna longline fleets between May 2009 and May 2011. Growth band pairs (identified as translucent and opaque bands) were counted on images photographed from X-ray films of the vertebrae from the caudal peduncle region. The marginal increment ratio and centrum edge analysis indicated that a growth band pair was formed on the vertebral centrum once per year. The band pairs after the birthmark were counted from 2 to 11 for females and from 2 to 15 for males. The bias corrected Akaike information criterion indicated that the von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF) best fitted the observed total length (TL)-at-age data. The parameters of sex-specific VBGF were estimated as follows: for females, theoretical maximum length (L) mean ± s.d. = 330.4 ± 46.6 cm TL, growth coefficient k = 0.164 ± 0.057 year–1 and theoretical age at length 0 (t0) = –1.29 ± 0.78 years; for males, L = 376.6 ± 32.6 cm TL, k = 0.128 ± 0.022 year–1 and t0 = –1.48 ± 0.54 years. The longevities were estimated to be at least 16.8 and 21.6 years for females and males respectively.

Additional keywords: birth mark, longevity, vertebral centrum, von Bertalanffy growth function.


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