Reproduction and Growth
The stout whiting reaches sexual maturity by the end of its second year of life, with around 50% of fish accomplishing this after only one year. The fish are around 13 cm once they reach sexual maturity. The patterns of spawning and movement of the juveniles differs between the eastern and western populations. In the western population, unlike many co-occurring sillaginids, stout whiting do not move inshore to spawn and the juveniles do not make their way to shallower waters; instead they spawn offshore, with the fish spending their entire lives in this environment. In contrast, the eastern population do use inshore nursery areas for the juveniles including bays and surf beaches, with this difference between populations attributed to increased competition between sillaginids by some authors. In both populations, spawning occurs over summer, with the fish spawning multiple times between December and March.
Stout whiting are fast growers in comparison to most other smelt-whitings, reaching 80% of its final length after 2 years of life. The species is known to reach a maximum age of 7 years, although most individuals do not survive more than 3 years.
Read more about this topic: Stout Whiting, Biology
Famous quotes containing the words reproduction and/or growth:
“Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it “the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.” The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of “Artist.””
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“It is in the comprehension of the physically disabled, or disordered ... that we are behind our age.... sympathy as a fine art is backward in the growth of progress ...”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)