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

doi:10.1656/058.014.0417

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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.

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Source-reported bounding extent: 33.338559712732525° to 33.714630486382156° latitude; -83.37867736816406° to -83.14178466796875° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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BibTeX RIS

Michael D. Homer, James T. Peterson, Cecil A. Jennings. 2015-12-18. Evaluation of three aging techniques and back-calculated growth for introduced Blue Catfish from Lake Oconee, Georgia. https://doi.org/10.1656/058.014.0417

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