REPRODUCTIVE SEASONALITY, MATURATION, FECUNDITY, AND SPAWNING FREQUENCY OF THE VERMILION SNAPPER, RHOMBOPLITES AURORUBENS, OFF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED-STATES

The vermilion snapper, Rhomboplites aurorubens, is an important specie s in headboat and commercial reef fisheries in the southeastern United States, especially in the Carolinas. The reproductive biology of verm ilion snapper was determined from samples collected on biweekly resear ch cruises (April to August 1992 and May 1993) and from samples collec ted from commercial vessels (September to April 1992-93). Vermilion sn apper did not exhibit a 1:1 sex ratio; 63% of the specimens were femal e. The reproductive season of vermilion snapper is April through late September in the southeastern United States. All vermilion snapper exa mined were mature, with the smallest female at 165 mm FL, the smallest male at 179 mm FL. The smallest fish aged (165 mm FL) was two years o ld. Length was the best predictor of batch fecundity (BF=0.0438FL(2.50 8)), Vermilion snapper spawn approximately every five days or about 35 times a year. Atresia did not significantly affect fecundity estimate s. Vermilion snapper is an indeterminate spawner; its oocytes mature c ontinuously during the spawning season and there is no hiatus between the size distribution of the oocyte classes. Total fecundity did not d ecline over the spawning season. Rather, it gradually increased throug h August and then declined in September. Mean oocyte diameter stayed c onstant over the reproductive season. The order of spawning batches wa s not consistent with the determinate fecundity prediction.