Abstract

Hogfish are the largest and most valuable wrasse species in Florida's waters. Recreational and commercial fishers combined caught an annual average of 400,000 pounds of hogfish during the last 12 years. Declining landings and catch rates, together with rapidly increasing prices per pound, suggest that problems may persist for hogfish populations despite fishery regulations enacted in 1994. Hogfish are hermaphroditie (prologynous) and there is concern that the minimum size limit of 12 inehes may be too small lo allow females lo ehange lo males in heavily fished areas. We are currently reviewing data from the Florida Marine Fisheries Information System, the Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey, and special eollections of hogfish. Fish were collected with spears, trawls, and traps. Ololiths were removed for age determination and gonads were fixed for characterization of reproduetive biology. Here, we present our methods of reproductive staging through the use of histological preparations. We also present preliminary results on the associations between morphometrie and pigmentation characters and reproductive development, and we compare the sizes at first maturity and sexual transformation of fish collected in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico with those of fish from the Florida Keys.

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