New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Growth of rock lobsters {Jasus edwardsii) in Fiordland, New Zealand

JOHN H. ANNALA BRUCE L. BYCROFT

Fisheries Research Centre
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
P.O. Box 297, Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract Moulting periods, growth per moult, annual and long-term growth, moult frequency, and growth rates were estimated for recaptured Jasus edwardsii tagged between Thompson and Caswell Sounds in Fiordland, New Zealand. Males grew faster than females, and both showed a progressively decreasing growth rate. For females immature at tagging and recapture, there was no relationship between growth per moult or annual growth and size. For females immature at tagging and mature at recapture, and for mature females, there was a significant decrease in growth per moult and annual growth with an increase in size. Some immature females moulted twice each year and others once, while all mature females moulted once. Empirical growth curves were better descriptors of the growth of females than the von Bertalanffy curve, especially for smaller and younger individuals. For males there was no relationship between growth per moult and size; however, there was a significant decrease in moult frequency and annual growth with an increase in size. The empirical and von BertalanfFy curves provided a reasonable approximation of size at age for males.

Keywords New Zealand; rock lobster; Jasus edwardsii; growth; moulting; tagging

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1988, Vol. 22: 29-41Crown copyright 1988 Received 28 July 1986; accepted 13 May 1987

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (892K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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