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1 December 2015 Evaluation of Three Aging Techniques and Back-Calculated Growth for Introduced Blue Catfish from Lake Oconee, Georgia
Michael D. Homer, James T. Peterson, Cecil A. Jennings
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Abstract

Back-calculation of length-at-age from otoliths and spines is a common technique employed in fisheries biology, but few studies have compared the precision of data collected with this method for catfish populations. We compared precision of back-calculated lengths-at-age for an introduced Ictalurus furcatus (Blue Catfish) population among 3 commonly used cross-sectioning techniques. We used gillnets to collect Blue Catfish (n = 153) from Lake Oconee, GA. We estimated ages from a basal recess, articulating process, and otolith cross-section from each fish. We employed the Frasier-Lee method to back-calculate length-at-age for each fish, and compared the precision of back-calculated lengths among techniques using hierarchical linear models. Precision in age assignments was highest for otoliths (83.5%) and lowest for basal recesses (71.4%). Back-calculated lengths were variable among fish ages 1–3 for the techniques compared; otoliths and basal recesses yielded variable lengths at age 8. We concluded that otoliths and articulating processes are adequate for age estimation of Blue Catfish.

Michael D. Homer, James T. Peterson, and Cecil A. Jennings "Evaluation of Three Aging Techniques and Back-Calculated Growth for Introduced Blue Catfish from Lake Oconee, Georgia," Southeastern Naturalist 14(4), 740-756, (1 December 2015). https://doi.org/10.1656/058.014.0417
Published: 1 December 2015
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