Age, Growth and Mortality of Brown Stripe Snapper Lutjanus vitta (Quoy and Gaimard 1824) from West Sulu Sea, Philippines

The age, growth and mortality parameters of brown stripe snapper Lutjanus vitta (Quoy and Gaimard 1824) from west Sulu Sea were investigated. Brown stripe snappers were sampled from small-scale bottom set longline landings from October 2012 until December 2013. The oldest recorded male was 11.71 years and female was 10.71 years, and measured 33.5 and 26.5 cm, respectively. Examination of sectioned otolith margins (n= 490) indicated annuli deposition in December and January which was closely related to the lowest water temperature in Sulu Sea. The von Bertalanffy growth parameters (male L sub( infinity ) = 32.5 cm, K= 0.34 year super(-1), t sub(0) = -1.68 year; female L sub( infinity ) = 27.1 cm, K = 0.53 year super(-1), t sub(0) = -1.30 year) differed significantly between sexes (ARSS F = 6.33, d.f. = 22, p< 0.05). The estimated total mortality rates were, 0.53 year super(-1) (male) and 0.50 year super(-1) (female). Linear relations between otolith weight and age implies continuous growth proportional to age and otolith weight and therefore, otolith weight may be used as proxy to predict age in future stock assessment.