Abstract

Vermilion Snapper are a commercially and recreationally harvested reef fish throughout their range, including the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Vermilion Snapper account for a combined harvest of around 1,300 tons annually and eight million dollars of sale in the commercial industry (NMFS 2016). Despite their economic influence and recreational popularity, information on Vermilion Snapper is limited in the northern GOM. Currently, most data collected for stock assessments comes from the eastern GOM. In the most recent assessment (SEDAR 45) Vermilion Snapper from the eastern GOM accounted for 93% of the total fish from the entire GOM (Fitzugh et al. 2015). Aside from data collected for stock assess-ments, only two studies (Collins et al. 2003 and Hood and Johnson 1998) have described the reproductive biology of Vermilion Snapper in the GOM. Both of these studies collected fish from the Eastern GOM and found fish were 100% mature by 250 mm and spawning season was from May through September (Hood and Johnson 1998) or April through September (Collins et al. 2003). Batch fecundities had a large range (5,535 – 415,000 eggs) and spawning periodicity was 1.6 days/between spawns. The objective of this study was to describe the reproductive biology of the Vermilion Snapper in the north-central GOM. Specifically, we described the spawning seasonality, spawning periodicity, reproductive strategy and fecundity of the Vermilion Snapper.

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