Mediterranean deep-water fish age determination and age validation: the state of the art

Studies on age and growth of deep-water fish in the Mediterranean have main ly centred on the macrourid fishes. Although in some studies length-frequen cy analysis has been carried out. the majority of studies have estimated ag e using annual increments in the sagittal otoliths. However, validation of the annual increments has been limited to a few studies involving the seaso nal changes in the structure of the otolith margin. Most species reach rela tively old ages of up to 30 years with moderate growth rates, except for th e mesopelagic Lepidopus caudatus which has younger ages and a faster growth rate. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.