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

Abstract

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).