Poster Presentation Australian Society for Fish Biology Conference 2018

Age, growth and mortality of tailor (Pomatomus saltatrix) in eastern Australia (#210)

Hayden T Schilling 1 2 , John Stewart 3 , Lenore Litherland 4 , James A Smith 1 2 , Jason D Everett 1 2 , Julian M Hughes 3 , Iain M Suthers 1 2
  1. Fisheries and Marine Environmental Research Laboratory, UNSW Australia, UNSW, NSW, Australia
  2. Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Chowder Bay, NSW, Australia
  3. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Chowder Bay, NSW, Australia
  4. Queensland Fisheries, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries , Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Pomatomus saltatrix (tailor) is a globally distributed pelegic mesopredator with previously identified differences in life history patterns. Despite being a key recreational species and subject to high fishing pressure in eastern Australia, many characteristics of P. saltatrix's life history remain undefined. Over 3 years, Over 3,500 fish were sampled from recreational and commercial fishers across two jurisdictions. Annual formation of rings within otoliths was validated and whole otoliths were shown to be equivalent to sectioned otoliths. Growth was determined to be fast yet the oldest collected fish was 6 years old, suggesting possible age truncation of this stock as other populations of the same species are commonly caught at older ages. A global comparison of life history was conducted and growth rates were found to be similar between most global populations except the northwest Atlantic population which show faster growth and old age structure than the other populations. It is speculated that this difference in life history is due to differing natural mortality.