Age and Growth of Whitespotted Conger Conger myriaster in the Southern Coastal Waters of Korea

Age and growth of whitespotted conger Conger myriaster were estimated using right sagittal otoliths from 495 fish collected from February, 2004, to January, 2005, in the southern coastal waters of Korea. Examination of the outer margin of the otoliths showed that opaque zones formed once a year and annual rings formed from April to June. The ages of the specimens examined ranged from 3 to 8 years. Whitespotted conger spawn from December to March. Allometry between preanal length and total weight can be expressed as $TW=0.0350{\times}PL^{2.9173}$ ( $R^2=0.89$ ). There was no significant difference in allometry between females and males (P>0.05). The estimated VBF growth equation was $L_t=415.2(1-e^{-0.1457(t+0.4654)})$ .