AGE, GROWTH, AND MORTALITY OF BLACK DRUM, POGONIAS-CROMIS, IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY-REGION

We used otolith ageing to describe the population dynamics of black dr um, Pogonias cromis, collected over a three-year period from the Chesa peake Bay region's commercial and recreational fisheries. Black drum a verage age, total length, and weight were 26 years, 109.5 cm, and 22.1 kg respectively. The oldest fish was 59 years and fish older than 50 years were present in the catch from 1990 to 1992. Growth in length sl owed by age 20, whereas growth in weight did not slow until age 45. A von Bertalanffy growth function was fitted to our data (L-infinity = 1 17.3 cm, K=0.105, t(0)=-2.3 yr) and was similar to that for northeast Florida, but dissimilar to that for the Gulf of Mexico. Fish grow slow er but reach larger sizes in the Atlantic than in the Gulf. Estimates of instantaneous total mortality, Z, from maximum age and catch-curve analyses were low, 0.08-0.13, indicating that fishing mortality is als o low in the Chesapeake Bay region. Studies to date lend support to th e hypothesis that black drum from the east coast of the United States are from a common stock. The fishery of the Chesapeake Bay region is m ade up of old, large migrants from that larger population and should b e managed accordingly.