Development of a Computer‐Aided Age Determination System: Evaluation Based on Otoliths of Bank Rockfish off California

We have developed a computer‐aided system (Bony Parts) to analyze periodic bands in fish otoliths (or other structures) for age estimation. The image analysis program first scans the image of a thin otolith section, perpendicular to the bands specified by the user. Adjacent scans are averaged and filtered with Fourier transformation or spatial domain convolution. Bands of higher density are detected and are marked and summed on the screen. We evaluated this new technique using subsamples of thin‐sectioned otoliths from the bank rockfish Sebastes rufus. The time and effort for cleaning, preparation, sectioning, and mounting are the same for both traditional and computer‐aided techniques. The computer‐aided technique reduced the time and tedium of counting bands, yet still allowed the user to interactively make subjective decisions about aging criteria. Both approaches produced similar readings, but computer‐aided estimates were more precise than traditional readings and required less analysis time. Thus, this new technique allows sample size and precision to be increased for a given amount of effort. Use of this new technique to age 1,897 sections produced von Bertalanffy growth equations that indicate female bank rockfish grow to a larger theoretical maximum size than males (L∞ = 500.7 mm versus 438.1 mm total length) but grow at a slightly slower rate (K = 0.054 for females versus 0.073 for males).