Investigation of some growth characteristics of Uranoscopus scaber Linnaeus, 1758 inhabiting the Northeastern Mediterranean

This study aimed to determine the age and some growth characteristics of Atlantic stargazer (Uranoscopus scaber) from İskenderun Bay (northeastern Mediterranean). For this purpose, total 150 Atlantic stargazer ranged 9.1-28.0 cm in total lenght and 11.66-345.59 g in weight were collected as by-catch from a commercial fishing boat between May 2015- January 2016. The percentage of females and males in all specimen were 46,66 % and 53.34 % respectively. The total length-weight relationships equation were found as W=0.011*TL3.131 with coefficient of determination R²=0.9728, for all fishes, W=0.015*TL3.021, R2=0.9512 for females and W=0.0102*TL3.136, R2=0.9553 for males. By using the von Bertanlanffy equation, the growth parameters of Atlantic stargazer were estimated as L∞=42.354 cm, k=0.098, t0=-1.8474 for all samples; L∞=36.916 cm, k=0.138, t0=-1.2693 for females and L∞=38.769 cm, k=0.1, t0=-2.334 for males. In this study, age reading was done by two independent readers and index of average percentage error (IAPE) was calculated as 6.1 %. The maximum absolute growth in length was calculated as 2.75 cm in fish with 5-6 years of age. The maximum relative growth in length was calculated as 23.3% in fish with 1-2 years of age. The highest condition factor value calculated as 1.81 in the age group 6 and the lowest condition factor value was calculated as 1.48 in the age group 1.