Anthropogenic factors that negatively impact reef fishes can include changes in life history patterns of fisheries-target species. Understanding these impacts on growth and population age structure is essential in the management of exploited populations of fishes. This is the first study to directly compare age and growth for a major fisheries species between east and west populations of a transatlantic reef fish. The main goal of this study was to document age and growth in gray triggerfish Balistes capriscus from coastal waters of Ghana in the Gulf of Guinea and compare those with previous growth studies from that research and with the western Atlantic population. A secondary objective of this study was to evaluate the use of otoliths to age triggerfish and to provide a preliminary comparison with spine-derived age estimates. Results from this study provided an updated understanding of the growth and age structure of the eastern B. capriscus population in Gulf of Guinea. We documented that shifts in population attributes occurred for B. capriscus after its major decline in abundance. The differences in physical and biotic characteristics of the east and west Atlantic regions and differences in collection methods of samples make direct comparisons of growth parameters difficult, however overall differences in maximum sizes and ages were apparent; the western Atlantic population had a larger maximum size and older maximum age. We also documented that sagittal otoliths can be used to provide age estimates for triggerfish species and compared to dorsal spines, otoliths as an ageing structure had better between reader precision compared to dorsal spines. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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来自跨大西洋种群的 Grey Triggerfish Balistes capriscus 的年龄和生长

对珊瑚礁鱼类产生负面影响的人为因素可能包括渔业目标物种生活史模式的变化。了解这些对生长和种群年龄结构的影响对于管理开发的鱼类种群至关重要。这是第一项直接比较跨大西洋礁鱼东部和西部种群之间主要渔业物种的年龄和生长情况的研究。本研究的主要目标是记录来自几内亚湾加纳沿海水域的灰色引金鱼的年龄和生长情况，并将其与该研究之前的生长研究以及西大西洋种群进行比较。本研究的第二个目标是评估耳石对引金鱼年龄的使用，并提供与脊柱衍生年龄估计值的初步比较。这项研究的结果提供了对几内亚湾东部 B. capriscus 种群生长和年龄结构的最新了解。我们记录了 B. capriscus 在丰度大幅下降后种群属性发生了变化。东西大西洋地区物理和生物特征的差异以及样品采集方法的差异使得生长参数的直接比较变得困难，但最大尺寸和年龄的总体差异是明显的；西大西洋种群的最大体型较大，最大年龄较大。我们还记录了矢状耳石可用于提供触发鱼物种的年龄估计，与背刺相比，与背刺相比，作为老化结构的耳石在阅读器之间具有更好的精度。本文受版权保护。版权所有。