Authors: William Driggers¹; John Carlson²; Brian Cullum³; John Dean³; Doug Oakley⁴

Source: Environmental Biology of Fishes, Volume 71, Number 2, October 2004 , pp. 171-178(8)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

We examined the age and growth of the blacknose shark, Carcharhinus acronotus, in the western North Atlantic Ocean by obtaining direct age estimates using vertebral centra. We verified annual deposition of growth increments with marginal increment analysis and validated it by analyzing vertebrae marked with oxytetracycline from a female blacknose shark held in captivity. Von Bertalanffy growth parameters indicated that female blacknose sharks have a lower growth constant (k), a larger theortical maximum size (L_), and are longer lived than males. We compared these growth parameters for blacknose sharks in the western North Atlantic Ocean to growth parameters for blacknose sharks collected in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to test for differences between regions. Females in the western North Atlantic Ocean have a significantly lower L_, lower k, and a higher theoretical longevity than females in the Gulf of Mexico. Males in the western North Atlantic Ocean have a higher L_<>, lower k, and higher theoretical longevity than males in the Gulf of Mexico. The significant differences between these life history parameters for blacknose sharks suggest that, when possible, future management initiatives concerning blacknose sharks should consider managing the populations in the western North Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico as separate stocks.

Keywords: life history; Carcharhinidae; small coastal shark; elasmobranch

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10641-004-0105-z

Affiliations: 1: Belle. W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal Research, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, U.S.A, Email: William.Driggers@noaa.gov 2: National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Panama City Laboratory, 3500 Delwood Beach Rd., Panama City, FL, 32408, U.S.A, 3: Belle. W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal Research, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, U.S.A, 4: Marine Resources Division, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, 217 Ft. Johnson Rd., P.O. Box 12559, Charleston, SC, 29412, U.S.A,

Publication date: 2004-10-01

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