The authors would like to thank Håkon Otterå and Kjell Nedreaas for organizing the gillnet survey and Torkel Larsen for his assistance in the laboratory.Peer reviewe

Halvorsen, Kim T.

Pritchard, Calum

Skiftesvik, Anne B.

Stendal, Marthe M . R.

Treasurer, Jim

Journal of Fish Biology

English

The Open University

B R I E F C OMMUN I C A T I O NA new maximum age observed within the family Labridae,ballan wrasse Labrus bergyltaCalum J. Pritchard1,2 | Marthe M. R. Stendal3,4 | Jim Treasurer5 |Kim T. Halvorsen3 | Anne B. Skiftesvik31School of Biological Sciences, University ofAberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen, UK2Scottish Government's Marine Directorate,Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, UK3Ecosystem Acoustics Group, Institute ofMarine Research, Flødevigen Research Station,His, Norway4Department of Biological Sciences, Universityof Bergen, Bergen, Norway5FAI Farms, Oxford, UKCorrespondenceCalum J. Pritchard, School of BiologicalSciences, University of Aberdeen, King'sCollege, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, Scotland.Email: c.pritchard.21@abdn.ac.ukFunding informationScottish Salmon Education and ResearchFoundation (SSERF); Scottish Government'sMarine Directorate; Norwegian ResearchCouncil, Grant/Award Number: 335887;Institute of Marine Research, Grant/AwardNumbers: 15638, 15626-02AbstractBallan wrasse Labrus bergylta is the largest species of wrasse inhabiting Europeanwaters and one of the longest-living species within the family Labridae. A large speci-men was caught off the coast of Skjerjehamn, western Norway (totallength = 410 mm; weight = 1274 g). The age of the specimen was determined to be34 years old based on the analysis of its opercula bones. This specimen establishes anew maximum age for ballan wrasse, 5 years older than the previously observedmaximum age.K E YWORD Sballan wrasse, Labrus bergylta, life history, longevity, maximum age, operculaBallan wrasse Labrus bergylta Ascanius 1767 is the largest species ofwrasse (family: Labridae) inhabiting European waters, with a maximumobserved length of 660 mm (Villegas-Ríos et al., 2021). Ballan wrassealso have the greatest longevity of European Labrids, with a maximumobserved age of 29 years, as determined for a male specimen caughton the Isle of Man (Dipper et al., 1977). This species is a protogynoussequential hermaphrodite, of which the oldest observed female was25 years (Dipper et al., 1977). In northern Europe, ballan wrasse are arelatively newly commercially exploited species after the introductionof wrasse as cleaner fish on salmonid farms (Bjordal, 1988). More than1 million wild ballan wrasse were landed annually in Norway between2013 and 2016 (Blanco Gonzalez & de Boer, 2017). Prior to this, ballanwrasse have been exploited as lobster bait in some parts of Norway;however, the extent of this fishery is unknown due to it being poorlydocumented within the literature. Ballan wrasse are considered to bevulnerable to overexploitation due to their life-history strategy as a pro-togynous sequential hermaphrodite, where populations have naturallyfemale-skewed sex ratios. Fishery-independent research has estimatedthat males, who provide obligate parental care, make up as little as 8%–12% of the population (Dipper et al., 1977; Mucientes et al., 2019;Quignard, 1966). To our knowledge, a quantitative stock assessmenthas not been performed for any population of ballan wrasse in northernEurope to date. Therefore, fisheries managers rely on valid life-historyinformation to implement appropriate management strategies. As ameasure to avoid depletion of males and age- and size-truncation inexploited ballan wrasse populations, a slot size limit, with a minimumlanding size of 22 cm and a maximum landing size of 28 cm, wasrecently implemented in Norway (pre-2022 season). Slot size limitshave also been implemented for wrasse species in Sweden, Scotland,and some of the fishing districts in England (Halvorsen et al., 2021).Received: 16 April 2024 Revised: 14 June 2024 Accepted: 13 July 2024DOI: 10.1111/jfb.15886FISHThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited.© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Fish Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Fisheries Society of the British Isles.1354 J Fish Biol. 2024;105:1354–1356.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfbA large specimen was caught in a scientific survey by gillnet inSkjerjehamn, Norway (60.9515 N, 4.966 E; depth between 3 and30 m), on October 25, 2021 (Figure 1a; Otterå et al., 2024). The speci-men was determined to be an intermediate morphotype, neither plainnor spotted, using Seljestad et al. (2020) as a guide. The specimen wasfrozen and processed at a later date. The specimen measured 410 mm(total length, accuracy = 1 mm) and weighed 1274 g (accuracy = 1 g).The sex of the specimen was identified as male through macroscopicinspection of the gonads. Age was determined by reading the numberof annuli present within the opercula bones. Studies on the age andgrowth of marine fish have mainly used otoliths for age determinationand, in some cases, scales. However, the opercula bone has been usedpreviously in fishes, such as perch Perca fluviatilis, where scales and oto-liths were less clear and reliable, reported for the first time by Nilsson(1921). Ballan wrasse otoliths are very small and often unclear, so oper-cula bones have been commonly used for age determination asdescribed by Dipper et al. (1977). Both opercula bones were extracted,immersed in boiled water for 10 min, and wiped clean. Opercula werecoated in a thin layer of oil and photographed using a microscope underreflected light. We assumed the birth date to be May 1 as described byDipper et al. (1977). As the specimen was captured in October, theopercula edge was considered to be plus-growth instead of a furtherannulus. Length-at-age was backcalculated using the equation:Lia¼ RiR LCað Þwhere Li is length at age, i; Ri is the radius of annulus, i; R is the radiusof the opercula; LC is the length at capture; and a is a correction factorobtained as the intercept from a regression of fish length with oper-cula radius. This is a modification of the direct proportionality formulaused by Lee (1912) to correct for allometric growth and to accountfor opercula size at age zero (32.5mm; Dipper et al., 1977). The age ofthe specimen was estimated as 34 years, based on readings of bothopercula bones by three independent analysts (C.P., J.T., and M.S.).Backcalculated length-at-age for the Skjerjehamn specimen is shownin Figure 1b with comparison to ballan wrasse from the Isle of Man(Dipper et al., 1977) and Scotland (Treasurer, 1994).Backcalculated lengths-at-age suggest that the first annulus wascorrectly identified as L1 and is highly comparable with age-1 fishfrom Scotland and the Isle of Man. All ballan wrasse show a similargrowth pattern up to 13 years, after which the Skjerjehamn specimenachieves a smaller length-at-age. The Skjerjehamn specimen is 20mmshorter than that of the previous oldest observed ballan wrasse,despite being 5 years older (Dipper et al., 1977). Plain morphotypeindividuals have been documented to have slower growth rates andattain smaller sizes-at-age than spotted morphotype individuals(Villegas-Ríos et al., 2013), though Dipper et al. did not document themorphotype of their specimen. Whether growth rates and longevitydiffer among plain, intermediate, and spotty ballan wrasse in Scandi-navian populations has not yet been investigated, but a recent studydid not detect any genetic differences among morphotypes in Scandi-navia, whereas they are clearly different in the Spanish population(Seljestad et al., 2020).The time elapsed between the previously reported maximum ageand the present paper, 47 years, initially suggests that the former wasa valid representation of maximum age for this species. However, weargue that the new maximum age presented in this paper, 34 years,F IGURE 1 (a) Whole specimen;(b) backcalculated length-at-age;(c) magnified opercula, including markson the annuli used to age the sample;and (d) unmagnified opercula.PRITCHARD ET AL. 1355FISH 10958649, 2024, 4, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.15886 by University Of Aberdeen The Uni, Wiley Online Library on [04/11/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons Licensemay remain to be an underestimate of this species' longevity aswrasse are rarely sampled and aged outside of the fishery. The livewrasse fishery directly targets the younger demographic of ballanwrasse through the use of size-selective fishing gears and in compli-ance with maximum landing sizes (Halvorsen et al., 2019). Targetingthe youngest demographic of ballan wrasse may also be indirect asthe live wrasse fishery is generally restricted to shallow water toreduce the risk of barotrauma, but research suggests that larger ballanwrasse occupy deeper depths (Halvorsen et al., 2020). Therefore,fishery-dependent surveys are biased toward sampling young fish.Although the absence of interactions between large fish and the fisheryis a positive indicator for the sustainability of this fishery, the absenceof large specimens available for scientific research propagates ballanwrasse as a data-limited species. Therefore, future surveys should oper-ate independent of the live wrasse fishery to sample the entire demo-graphic of ballan wrasse and establish a valid representation of theirpopulation dynamics (e.g., growth rates, mortality rates, and recruit-ment). However, caution should be taken to ensure that sampling ofold males is kept to a minimum to preserve natural sex ratios. Althoughanecdotal, this observation may indicate a healthy ballan wrasse popu-lation on the coast of Skjerjehamn due to the lack of age truncation.The maximum age presented in this paper contributes to a greaterunderstanding on the longevity of ballan wrasse and updates the life-history information available for this species. This finding is particularlyimportant within the context of fisheries management, as sampling theeldest demographic is crucial for producing valid and representativegrowth models and estimating natural mortality rates.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSKim T. Halvorsen and Anne B. Skiftesvik arranged the sampling. CalumJ. Pritchard and Marthe M. R. Stendal performed the dissection.Marthe M. R. Stendal prepared the opercula for aging. CalumJ. Pritchard, Jim Treasurer, and Marthe M. R. Stendal examined theopercula and determined age. Calum J. Pritchard wrote the manu-script. All the authors contributed to improving the initial draft.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank Håkon Otterå and Kjell Nedreaas fororganizing the gillnet survey and Torkel Larsen for his assistance inthe laboratory.FUNDING INFORMATIONThe study was funded by the Scottish Salmon Education and ResearchFoundation (SSERF), Scottish Government's Marine Directorate, andthe Norwegian Research Council through the project “Understandinghuman-induced trophic cascades in coastal ecosystems” (project #335887) and the Institute of Marine Research (project # 15638 and15626-02).ORCIDCalum J. Pritchard https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7093-6785Marthe M. R. Stendal https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7725-6453Jim Treasurer https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3447-9449Kim T. Halvorsen https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6857-2492Anne B. Skiftesvik https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7754-5661REFERENCESBjordal, Å. (1988). Cleaning symbiosis between wrasse (Labridae) and liceinfested salmon (Salmo salar) in mariculture (Vol. 188, pp. 1–8). Interna-tional Council for the Exploration of the Sea Mariculture Committee.Blanco Gonzalez, E., & de Boer, F. (2017). The development of the Norwe-gian wrasse fishery and the use of wrasses as cleaner fish in thesalmon aquaculture industry. Fisheries Science, 83, 661–670.Dipper, F. A., Bridges, C. R., & Menz, A. (1977). Age, growth and feeding inthe ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta Ascanius 1767. Journal of Fish Biol-ogy, 11, 105–120.Halvorsen, K., Skiftesvik, A. B., & Jørgensen, T. (2019). Kunnskapsstøtte–anbefaling om redusert inngangsstørrelse i teiner i fisket etter leppe-fisk. Havforskningsinstituttet Rapport, 20-2019, 1–8.Halvorsen, K. T., Skiftesvik, A. B., Durif, C. M., Faust, E., Wennhage, H.,André, C., Linnemann Rønfeldt, J., Moller, P. R., Carl, H., &Jørgensen, T. (2021). Towards a sustainable fishery and use of cleanerfish in salmonid aquaculture. In TemaNord, (2021: 545). Nordic Councilof Ministers.Halvorsen, K. T., Sørdalen, T. K., Larsen, T., Browman, H. I., Rafoss, T.,Albretsen, J., & Skiftesvik, A. B. (2020). Mind the depth: The verticaldimension of a small-scale coastal fishery shapes selection on species,size, and sex in wrasses. Marine and Coastal Fisheries, 12, 404–422.Lee, R. M. (1912). An investigation into the methods of growth determina-tion in fishes. Conseil Permanent International l'Exploration de la MerPublacion de Cironstance, 63, 3–34.Mucientes, G., Irisarri, J., & Villegas-Ríos, D. (2019). Interannual fine-scalesite fidelity of male ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta revealed by photo-identification and tagging. Journal of Fish Biology, 95, 1151–1155.Nilsson, D. (1921). Nagra insjofiskars alder och tillvaxt I Bottniska Viken ochMalaren. Medd. Landtbr-Styr (p. 231) [in Swedish]. Tiden.Otterå, H., Bjelland, O., Hinriksson, J., Næss, H., & Nedreaas, K. (2024).Prøvefiske med trollgarn og åleruser på grunt vatn (Vol. 24). SurveyReport – Institute of Marine Research. [in Norwegian].Quignard, J. P. (1966). Recherches sur les Labridae (poison téléostéen perci-formes) des côtes européennes: systématique et biologie (Vol. 5, pp. 7–248). Naturalia Monspel.Seljestad, G. W., Quintela, M., Faust, E., Halvorsen, K. T., Besnier, F.,Jansson, E., Dahle, G., Knutsen, H., André, C., Folkvord, A., &Glover, K. A. (2020). ‘A cleaner break’: Genetic divergence betweengeographic groups and sympatric phenotypes revealed in Ballanwrasse (Labrus bergylta). Ecology and Evolution, 10, 6120–6135.Treasurer, J. W. (1994). The distribution, age and growth of wrasse(Labridae) in inshore waters of west Scotland. Journal of Fish Biology,44, 905–918.Villegas-Ríos, D., Alonso-Fernández, A., Fabeiro, M., Bañón, R., &Saborido-Rey, F. (2013). Demographic variation between colour pat-terns in a temperate protogynous hermaphrodite, the ballan wrasseLabrus bergylta. PLoS One, 8, 71591.Villegas-Ríos, D., Bañón, R., & Fabeiro, M. (2021). A new maximum lengthof Labrus bergylta (Labriformes: Labridae) with notes on age determi-nation for the species. Cybium, 45, 239–242.How to cite this article: Pritchard, C. J., Stendal, M. M. R.,Treasurer, J., Halvorsen, K. T., & Skiftesvik, A. B. (2024). A newmaximum age observed within the family Labridae, ballanwrasse Labrus bergylta. Journal of Fish Biology, 105(4),1354–1356. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.158861356 PRITCHARD ET AL.FISH 10958649, 2024, 4, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.15886 by University Of Aberdeen The Uni, Wiley Online Library on [04/11/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License

A new maximum age observed within the family Labridae : Ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta

Ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta is the largest species of wrasse inhabiting European waters and one of the longest-living species within the family Labridae. A large specimen was caught off the coast of Skjerjehamn, western Norway (total length = 410 mm; weight = 1274 g). The age of the specimen was determined to be 34 years old based on the analysis of its opercula bones. This specimen establishes a new maximum age for ballan wrasse, 5 years older than the previously observed maximum age.publishedVersio

Pritchard, Calum J.

Stendal, Marthe Marie Ruud

Halvorsen, Kim Aleksander Tallaksen

Skiftesvik, Anne Berit

Brage IMR

B R I E F C OMMUN I C A T I O NA new maximum age observed within the family Labridae,ballan wrasse Labrus bergyltaCalum J. Pritchard1,2 | Marthe M. R. Stendal3,4 | Jim Treasurer5 |Kim T. Halvorsen3 | Anne B. Skiftesvik31School of Biological Sciences, University ofAberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen, UK2Scottish Government's Marine Directorate,Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, UK3Ecosystem Acoustics Group, Institute ofMarine Research, Flødevigen Research Station,His, Norway4Department of Biological Sciences, Universityof Bergen, Bergen, Norway5FAI Farms, Oxford, UKCorrespondenceCalum J. Pritchard, School of BiologicalSciences, University of Aberdeen, King'sCollege, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, Scotland.Email: c.pritchard.21@abdn.ac.ukFunding informationScottish Salmon Education and ResearchFoundation (SSERF); Scottish Government'sMarine Directorate; Norwegian ResearchCouncil, Grant/Award Number: 335887;Institute of Marine Research, Grant/AwardNumbers: 15638, 15626-02AbstractBallan wrasse Labrus bergylta is the largest species of wrasse inhabiting Europeanwaters and one of the longest-living species within the family Labridae. A large speci-men was caught off the coast of Skjerjehamn, western Norway (totallength = 410 mm; weight = 1274 g). The age of the specimen was determined to be34 years old based on the analysis of its opercula bones. This specimen establishes anew maximum age for ballan wrasse, 5 years older than the previously observedmaximum age.K E YWORD Sballan wrasse, Labrus bergylta, life history, longevity, maximum age, operculaBallan wrasse Labrus bergylta Ascanius 1767 is the largest species ofwrasse (family: Labridae) inhabiting European waters, with a maximumobserved length of 660 mm (Villegas-Ríos et al., 2021). Ballan wrassealso have the greatest longevity of European Labrids, with a maximumobserved age of 29 years, as determined for a male specimen caughton the Isle of Man (Dipper et al., 1977). This species is a protogynoussequential hermaphrodite, of which the oldest observed female was25 years (Dipper et al., 1977). In northern Europe, ballan wrasse are arelatively newly commercially exploited species after the introductionof wrasse as cleaner fish on salmonid farms (Bjordal, 1988). More than1 million wild ballan wrasse were landed annually in Norway between2013 and 2016 (Blanco Gonzalez & de Boer, 2017). Prior to this, ballanwrasse have been exploited as lobster bait in some parts of Norway;however, the extent of this fishery is unknown due to it being poorlydocumented within the literature. Ballan wrasse are considered to bevulnerable to overexploitation due to their life-history strategy as a pro-togynous sequential hermaphrodite, where populations have naturallyfemale-skewed sex ratios. Fishery-independent research has estimatedthat males, who provide obligate parental care, make up as little as 8%–12% of the population (Dipper et al., 1977; Mucientes et al., 2019;Quignard, 1966). To our knowledge, a quantitative stock assessmenthas not been performed for any population of ballan wrasse in northernEurope to date. Therefore, fisheries managers rely on valid life-historyinformation to implement appropriate management strategies. As ameasure to avoid depletion of males and age- and size-truncation inexploited ballan wrasse populations, a slot size limit, with a minimumlanding size of 22 cm and a maximum landing size of 28 cm, wasrecently implemented in Norway (pre-2022 season). Slot size limitshave also been implemented for wrasse species in Sweden, Scotland,and some of the fishing districts in England (Halvorsen et al., 2021).Received: 16 April 2024 Revised: 14 June 2024 Accepted: 13 July 2024DOI: 10.1111/jfb.15886FISHThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited.© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Fish Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Fisheries Society of the British Isles.1354 J Fish Biol. 2024;105:1354–1356.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfbA large specimen was caught in a scientific survey by gillnet inSkjerjehamn, Norway (60.9515 N, 4.966 E; depth between 3 and30 m), on October 25, 2021 (Figure 1a; Otterå et al., 2024). The speci-men was determined to be an intermediate morphotype, neither plainnor spotted, using Seljestad et al. (2020) as a guide. The specimen wasfrozen and processed at a later date. The specimen measured 410 mm(total length, accuracy = 1 mm) and weighed 1274 g (accuracy = 1 g).The sex of the specimen was identified as male through macroscopicinspection of the gonads. Age was determined by reading the numberof annuli present within the opercula bones. Studies on the age andgrowth of marine fish have mainly used otoliths for age determinationand, in some cases, scales. However, the opercula bone has been usedpreviously in fishes, such as perch Perca fluviatilis, where scales and oto-liths were less clear and reliable, reported for the first time by Nilsson(1921). Ballan wrasse otoliths are very small and often unclear, so oper-cula bones have been commonly used for age determination asdescribed by Dipper et al. (1977). Both opercula bones were extracted,immersed in boiled water for 10 min, and wiped clean. Opercula werecoated in a thin layer of oil and photographed using a microscope underreflected light. We assumed the birth date to be May 1 as described byDipper et al. (1977). As the specimen was captured in October, theopercula edge was considered to be plus-growth instead of a furtherannulus. Length-at-age was backcalculated using the equation:Lia¼ RiR LCað Þwhere Li is length at age, i; Ri is the radius of annulus, i; R is the radiusof the opercula; LC is the length at capture; and a is a correction factorobtained as the intercept from a regression of fish length with oper-cula radius. This is a modification of the direct proportionality formulaused by Lee (1912) to correct for allometric growth and to accountfor opercula size at age zero (32.5mm; Dipper et al., 1977). The age ofthe specimen was estimated as 34 years, based on readings of bothopercula bones by three independent analysts (C.P., J.T., and M.S.).Backcalculated length-at-age for the Skjerjehamn specimen is shownin Figure 1b with comparison to ballan wrasse from the Isle of Man(Dipper et al., 1977) and Scotland (Treasurer, 1994).Backcalculated lengths-at-age suggest that the first annulus wascorrectly identified as L1 and is highly comparable with age-1 fishfrom Scotland and the Isle of Man. All ballan wrasse show a similargrowth pattern up to 13 years, after which the Skjerjehamn specimenachieves a smaller length-at-age. The Skjerjehamn specimen is 20mmshorter than that of the previous oldest observed ballan wrasse,despite being 5 years older (Dipper et al., 1977). Plain morphotypeindividuals have been documented to have slower growth rates andattain smaller sizes-at-age than spotted morphotype individuals(Villegas-Ríos et al., 2013), though Dipper et al. did not document themorphotype of their specimen. Whether growth rates and longevitydiffer among plain, intermediate, and spotty ballan wrasse in Scandi-navian populations has not yet been investigated, but a recent studydid not detect any genetic differences among morphotypes in Scandi-navia, whereas they are clearly different in the Spanish population(Seljestad et al., 2020).The time elapsed between the previously reported maximum ageand the present paper, 47 years, initially suggests that the former wasa valid representation of maximum age for this species. However, weargue that the new maximum age presented in this paper, 34 years,F IGURE 1 (a) Whole specimen;(b) backcalculated length-at-age;(c) magnified opercula, including markson the annuli used to age the sample;and (d) unmagnified opercula.PRITCHARD ET AL. 1355FISH 10958649, 2024, 4, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.15886 by UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN, Wiley Online Library on [11/12/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons Licensemay remain to be an underestimate of this species' longevity aswrasse are rarely sampled and aged outside of the fishery. The livewrasse fishery directly targets the younger demographic of ballanwrasse through the use of size-selective fishing gears and in compli-ance with maximum landing sizes (Halvorsen et al., 2019). Targetingthe youngest demographic of ballan wrasse may also be indirect asthe live wrasse fishery is generally restricted to shallow water toreduce the risk of barotrauma, but research suggests that larger ballanwrasse occupy deeper depths (Halvorsen et al., 2020). Therefore,fishery-dependent surveys are biased toward sampling young fish.Although the absence of interactions between large fish and the fisheryis a positive indicator for the sustainability of this fishery, the absenceof large specimens available for scientific research propagates ballanwrasse as a data-limited species. Therefore, future surveys should oper-ate independent of the live wrasse fishery to sample the entire demo-graphic of ballan wrasse and establish a valid representation of theirpopulation dynamics (e.g., growth rates, mortality rates, and recruit-ment). However, caution should be taken to ensure that sampling ofold males is kept to a minimum to preserve natural sex ratios. Althoughanecdotal, this observation may indicate a healthy ballan wrasse popu-lation on the coast of Skjerjehamn due to the lack of age truncation.The maximum age presented in this paper contributes to a greaterunderstanding on the longevity of ballan wrasse and updates the life-history information available for this species. This finding is particularlyimportant within the context of fisheries management, as sampling theeldest demographic is crucial for producing valid and representativegrowth models and estimating natural mortality rates.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSKim T. Halvorsen and Anne B. Skiftesvik arranged the sampling. CalumJ. Pritchard and Marthe M. R. Stendal performed the dissection.Marthe M. R. Stendal prepared the opercula for aging. CalumJ. Pritchard, Jim Treasurer, and Marthe M. R. Stendal examined theopercula and determined age. Calum J. Pritchard wrote the manu-script. All the authors contributed to improving the initial draft.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank Håkon Otterå and Kjell Nedreaas fororganizing the gillnet survey and Torkel Larsen for his assistance inthe laboratory.FUNDING INFORMATIONThe study was funded by the Scottish Salmon Education and ResearchFoundation (SSERF), Scottish Government's Marine Directorate, andthe Norwegian Research Council through the project “Understandinghuman-induced trophic cascades in coastal ecosystems” (project #335887) and the Institute of Marine Research (project # 15638 and15626-02).ORCIDCalum J. Pritchard https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7093-6785Marthe M. R. Stendal https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7725-6453Jim Treasurer https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3447-9449Kim T. Halvorsen https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6857-2492Anne B. Skiftesvik https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7754-5661REFERENCESBjordal, Å. (1988). Cleaning symbiosis between wrasse (Labridae) and liceinfested salmon (Salmo salar) in mariculture (Vol. 188, pp. 1–8). Interna-tional Council for the Exploration of the Sea Mariculture Committee.Blanco Gonzalez, E., & de Boer, F. (2017). The development of the Norwe-gian wrasse fishery and the use of wrasses as cleaner fish in thesalmon aquaculture industry. Fisheries Science, 83, 661–670.Dipper, F. A., Bridges, C. R., & Menz, A. (1977). Age, growth and feeding inthe ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta Ascanius 1767. Journal of Fish Biol-ogy, 11, 105–120.Halvorsen, K., Skiftesvik, A. B., & Jørgensen, T. (2019). Kunnskapsstøtte–anbefaling om redusert inngangsstørrelse i teiner i fisket etter leppe-fisk. Havforskningsinstituttet Rapport, 20-2019, 1–8.Halvorsen, K. T., Skiftesvik, A. B., Durif, C. M., Faust, E., Wennhage, H.,André, C., Linnemann Rønfeldt, J., Moller, P. R., Carl, H., &Jørgensen, T. (2021). Towards a sustainable fishery and use of cleanerfish in salmonid aquaculture. In TemaNord, (2021: 545). Nordic Councilof Ministers.Halvorsen, K. T., Sørdalen, T. K., Larsen, T., Browman, H. I., Rafoss, T.,Albretsen, J., & Skiftesvik, A. B. (2020). Mind the depth: The verticaldimension of a small-scale coastal fishery shapes selection on species,size, and sex in wrasses. Marine and Coastal Fisheries, 12, 404–422.Lee, R. M. (1912). An investigation into the methods of growth determina-tion in fishes. Conseil Permanent International l'Exploration de la MerPublacion de Cironstance, 63, 3–34.Mucientes, G., Irisarri, J., & Villegas-Ríos, D. (2019). Interannual fine-scalesite fidelity of male ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta revealed by photo-identification and tagging. Journal of Fish Biology, 95, 1151–1155.Nilsson, D. (1921). Nagra insjofiskars alder och tillvaxt I Bottniska Viken ochMalaren. Medd. Landtbr-Styr (p. 231) [in Swedish]. Tiden.Otterå, H., Bjelland, O., Hinriksson, J., Næss, H., & Nedreaas, K. 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PLoS One, 8, 71591.Villegas-Ríos, D., Bañón, R., & Fabeiro, M. (2021). A new maximum lengthof Labrus bergylta (Labriformes: Labridae) with notes on age determi-nation for the species. Cybium, 45, 239–242.How to cite this article: Pritchard, C. J., Stendal, M. M. R.,Treasurer, J., Halvorsen, K. T., & Skiftesvik, A. B. (2024). A newmaximum age observed within the family Labridae, ballanwrasse Labrus bergylta. Journal of Fish Biology, 105(4),1354–1356. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.158861356 PRITCHARD ET AL.FISH 10958649, 2024, 4, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.15886 by UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN, Wiley Online Library on [11/12/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License

A new maximum age observed within the family Labridae, ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta

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A new maximum age observed within the family Labridae : Ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta

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