The age of whole otoliths from barramundi (Lates calcarifer) obtained from the southern Gulf of Carpentaria were estimated using Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy. Otoliths from 1716 barramundi collected in 2006, 2009 and 2012–2015 were used in this study. Partial least-squares regression models (PLS-R) and multiple linear regression models (MLR) were developed from the diffuse reflectance spectra and the age was obtained from traditional sectioned otoliths. Calibration models were built up over consecutive years (2012–2015) by using a subset of the samples and used to predict the age of the remaining samples and samples from the following year. Results suggest that when seasonal (temporal) variability is incorporated into the calibration model, FT-NIR has the ability to predict barramundi age (validation R² ranged from 0.73 to 0.78; RMSEP ranged from 6.92 to 7.64 months). The predicted age class was within 1 year of the reference age in over 96% of the samples. These models were also able to predict the age of otoliths from 2006 and 2009, which were retrieved from long-term storage (validation R² ranged from 0.77 to 0.84; RMSEP ranged from 8.66 to 10.88 months). The results from this study have shown the potential for barramundi from the southern Gulf of Carpentaria to be aged quickly and accurately by using FT-NIR.

整个耳石从澳洲肺鱼（年龄鲈calcarifer使用傅里叶变换近红外（FT-NIR）光谱估算了从卡彭塔里亚南部海湾获得的）。本研究使用了2006年，2009年和2012–2015年收集的1716头澳洲肺鱼的耳石。从漫反射光谱中建立了偏最小二乘回归模型（PLS-R）和多个线性回归模型（MLR），并从传统的耳石切片中获得了年龄。通过使用一部分样本建立了连续几年（2012-2015年）的校准模型，并用于预测剩余样本和第二年的样本年龄。结果表明，将季节性（时间）变化纳入校准模型后，FT-NIR可以预测澳洲肺鱼的年龄（验证R ²从0.73到0.78; RMSEP范围从6.92到7.64个月不等。在超过96％的样本中，预测年龄段在参考年龄的1年内。这些模型还能够预测从长期存储中检索到的2006年和2009年耳石的年龄（验证R ^2的范围从0.77到0.84； RMSEP的范围从8.66到10.88个月）。这项研究的结果表明，使用FT-NIR技术可以快速而准确地对来自卡彭塔里亚南部海湾的澳洲肺鱼进行陈化。