David M. Wyanski

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources · Marine Resources Research Institute

As the number of fish reproduction studies has proliferated, so has the number of gonadal classification schemes and terms. This hasmade it difficult for both scientists and resourcemanagers to communicate and for comparisons to be made among studies.We propose the adoption of a simple, universal terminology for the phases in the reproductive cycle...

Although incorporating detailed reproductive data into all stock assessments is not a practical goal, the need to understand how reproductive biology affects population productivity is being increasingly recognized. More research focused on reproductive biology—coupled with a shift towards a resilience perspective in fisheries science—is resulting...

Most assessments of fish stocks use some measure of the reproductive potential of a population, such as spawning biomass. However, the correlation between spawning biomass and reproductive potential is not always strong, and it likely is weakest in the tropics and subtropics, where species tend to exhibit indeterminate fecundity and release eggs in...

Managed reef fish in the Atlantic Ocean of the southeastern United States (SEUS) support a multi-billion dollar industry. There is a broad interest in locating and protecting spawning fish from harvest, to enhance productivity and reduce the potential for overfishing. We assessed spatiotemporal cues for spawning for six species from four reef fish...

Stock assessments historically have used age- and size-independent methods to estimate reproductive output in marine fishes. Recent assessments have used total egg production (TEP), often assuming an invariant spawning frequency (SF) for all females. However, spawning parameters vary with age and size, which invalidates this assumption. This study...

Objective This paper highlights the complexity of marine fish spawner–recruit systems and how they vary across species and ecosystems while providing a universal terminology and framework to evaluate fish reproduction. We emphasize the gonadal development important to assess maturity, fecundity, where and when fish spawn, and transition and sex ass...

The most abundant fishes on Earth live in the meso- and bathypelagic (deep-pelagic, collectively) zones of the open ocean, where they play a key role in deep-sea food webs by mediating energy flow from surface waters to great depth. Of these fishes, the most speciose taxon is the family Stomiidae (dragonfishes). Despite being the numerically domina...

The Gray Triggerfish Balistes capriscus supports fisheries on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. We utilized fishery-independent samples to assess the age structure, growth, sex ratio, size and age at maturity, spawning season, and spawning frequency of the Gray Triggerfish population off the southeastern U.S. Atlantic coast. From1991 to 2012, 7,685...

Supporting references for Table 6 spawning seasons. (DOCX)

Plots of regression model parameter estimates from Table 7. (DOCX)

Probability of encountering a spawning condition female Gray Triggerfish. Predicted mean (left) and standard error (right) probabilities of observing spawning condition female at time and conditions of peak spawning, relative to external validation collections (+). Raster color-coding based on 1.5 standard deviations from the mean. Green boxes indi...

Probability of encountering a spawning condition female Scamp. Predicted mean (left) and standard error (right) probabilities of observing spawning condition female at time and conditions of peak spawning, relative to external validation collections (+). Raster color-coding based on 1.5 standard deviations from the mean. Green boxes indicate no-tak...

Probability of encountering a spawning condition female White Grunt. Predicted mean (left) and standard error (right) probabilities of observing spawning condition female at time and conditions of peak spawning, relative to external validation collections (+). Raster color-coding based on 1.5 standard deviations from the mean. Green boxes indicate...

From 1977 to 2007, speckled hind Epinephelus drummondhayi were sampled along the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United States from North Carolina to central Florida. In total, 1,365 speckled hind were obtained from two sources (fishery-independent survey and commercial catches). The ages of specimens were estimated from increment counts on tran...

We document the continued population expansion of red lionfish, Pterois volitans, the first documented successful introduction of an invasive marine fish species from the western Pacific to Atlantic coastal waters of the United States. Red lionfish are indigenous to the Indo-Pacific and have apparently established one or more breeding populations o...

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Fishery Bulletin 106 (2008): 183-193. The identification of sea bass (Centropristis) larvae to species is difficult because of similar morphological characters, spawning times, and overlapping species ranges. Black sea bass (Centropristis striata) is an important f...

The greater amberjack Seriola dumerili is a pelagic, epibenthic species that is widely distributed in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Life history samples from a total of 2,729 greater amberjacks were collected between 2000 and 2004 by personnel of the Marine Resource Monitoring Assessment and Prediction program and National Marine Fisher...

As the number of fish reproductive studies has proliferated, so has the number of gonadal classification schemes and terms. This has made it difficult for managers and scientists to communicate and for comparisons to be made between studies. We propose the adoption of a simple, universal terminology for the phases in the reproductive cycle that can...

The objective of this research was to update the knowledge on the life history of red grouper Epinephelus morio (Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1828), a commercially important species off North Carolina and South Carolina. A total of 2146 specimens was sampled from commercial catches and obtained with fishery-independent gear between Dece...

Spawning condition was determined for 28 species of reef fish represent- ing 11 families (Balistidae, Berycidae, Carangidae, Centrolophidae, Haemuli- dae, Lutjanidae, Malacanthidae, Polyprionidae, Scorpaenidae, Serranidae, Sparidae) collected off the Carolinas, Georgia and east coast of Florida (including the Keys) in depths from 1 - 686 m. The pre...

During 1995–1999, 3876 gag, Mycteroperca microlepis (Goode and Bean, 1879), were tagged off the southeastern U.S. from North Carolina to southern Florida, primarily from commercial fishing vessels. Prior to release, the swim bladder of tagged fish was deflated with a 16-gauge hypodermic needle. Approximately 11% of the tagged fish were recaptured....

The blueline tilefish Caulolatilus microps is a long-lived, slow-growing deepwater demersal species patchily distributed along the outer continental shelf of North America from Cape Lookout, North Carolina, to Campeche Bank, Mexico. Commercial landings of blueline tilefish for the southeastern United States peaked in 1983 at 530 metric tons (mt), f...

Scamp (Mycteroperca phenax) is a protogynous grouper that is a popular commercial and recreational species along the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United States. Scamp were sampled from the commercial and recreational fishery (1979-1996), and from the Marine Resource Monitoring Assessment and Prediction (MARMAP) program, a fishery-independent...

Development of transformation larvae and juveniles of the sympatric estuarine gobies Ctenogobius boleosoma (7.1-19.8 mm standard length (SL)), Ctenogobius shufeldti (10.1-19.9 mm SL), and Gobionellus oceanicus (10.5-19.6 mm SL), is described and partly illustrated. Specimens from the Atlantic (n = 102) and Gulf of Mexico (n = 22) coasts of the Unit...

Sagittae (n=2,263) and gonads (n=870) from snowy grouper, Epinephelus niveatus, caught primarily with longlines, Kali poles, snapper reels, and chevron traps off North Carolina and South Carolina were examined 1) to compare growth rates, population age structure, and sex ratio between two periods 1979-85 and 1993-94, and 2) to determine reproductiv...

Otoliths and gonads of blackbelly rosefish Helicolenus dactylopterus dactylopterus were collected from the commercial fishery off the Carolinas in 1994–1997. Opaque bands on transverse sections of otoliths were determined to be annuli by analysis of marginal increments. Opaque zone formation occurs between July and January. Ages ranged from 7 to 30...

Gag, Mycteroperca microlepis, is a large, slow-growing, protogynous grouper that probably makes annual migrations to specific locations to aggregate for spawning. During 1976-82, male gag constituted 19.6% of the sexually mature individuals taken during fishery-dependent and fishery-independent sampling along the southeast coast of the United State...

The vermilion snapper, Rhomboplites aurorubens, is an important species in headboat and commercial reef fisheries in the southeastern United States, especially in the Carolinas. The reproductive biology of vermilion snapper was determined from samples collected on biweekly research cruises (April to August 1992 and May 1993) and from samples collec...

Sectioned sagittae were examined. The oldest male was age 6 and the oldest female age 11. The von Bertalanffy growth equation parameters L∞, k, and to, respectively) were: 538 mm fork length (FL), 0.31, and -2.31 for males; 723 mm FL, 0.24 and -1.80 for females; and 760 mm FL, 0.18 and -2.44 for sexes combined. Females were in spawning condition fr...

Juvenile development of the lyre goby, Evorthodus lyricus, is described and illustrated for specimens 8.5-22.3 mm standard length, and early life history is discussed. Specimens were collected primarily from small tidepools constructed on the salt marsh surface (in the growth of smooth cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora) in two Georgia estuaries. Juv...

The feeding biology of nine species of Antarctic fishes in the Harpagiferidae was investigated. Gut contents from 174 specimens, collected at various locations in the Antarctic Region, were analyzed. The species examined all have a similar feeding mode, preying on actively moving organisms which occur either in the water column close to the bottom...