The age estimation of an extremely old Silver Drummer Kyphosus sydneyanus (Günther 1886) from southern Western Australia
Peter Graham Coulson
A B C *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Western Australian Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Government of Western Australia, P. O. Box 20, North Beach, WA 6920, Australia.
B Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.
C Present address: Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), College of Science and Engineering, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 49, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia.
Pacific Conservation Biology 29(5) 456-460 https://doi.org/10.1071/PC22047
Submitted: 30 November 2022 Accepted: 5 February 2023 Published: 14 March 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Kyphosids are conspicuous members of temperate and tropical reef fish communities. Some species contribute to commercial and recreational fisheries but are vulnerable to capture in large numbers due to their schooling behaviour and site fidelity. Previous ageing studies of kyphosids have determined that some species are long-lived, with maximum ages >40 years, which is a trait often associated with low natural mortality rates. Kyphosus sydneyanus is one of the largest kyphosids and has historically been caught in large numbers as a bycatch species in the demersal gillnet fishery in southern Western Australia. A large K. sydneyanus specimen was collected from that fishery in March 2021. A count of the growth (opaque) zones in the sectioned otoliths were used to determine that the age of this individual was 93 years, more than double the previous maximum age of a Kyphosus species and the longest-lived coastal species in southern Australia.
Keywords: bycatch, Kyphosinae, longevity, mortality, otoliths, rocky reef, teleost, temperate.
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