Age and Growth on Sharks & Tunas    

Age validation is a critical first step before complete age and growth models can be incorporated into stock assessment models to assist in evaluating population status of commercially and recreationally important fish species. Our lab is collaborating with the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, CA using oxytetracycline (OTC) procedures to validate the deposition rate in vertebrae of several pelagic sharks common to the California Current ecosystem.

Age and growth studies of sharks and tunas are also ongoing in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico in order to provide fishery managers with the best available life history information of these economically valuable species.