THE AGE AND GROWTH OF STHENOTEUTHIS OUALANIENSIS (CEPHALOPODA: OMMASTREPHIDAE) IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN

摘要

Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis is distributed in the tropical and subtropical areas of the Pacific and the Indian Oceans. According to Nesis (1993), there is a complex population structure in S. oualaniensis, as is the case in many other ommastrephids and some loliginids. In the Pacific Ocean, there is the middle-sized squid which is a widespread and typical one (Nesis, 1993). Arkhipkin and Bizikov (1991) examined the statoliths of middle-sized female in the Indian Ocean and determined its growth. S. oualaniensis is, though, one of the most difficult species in the Ommastrephidae for the observation of statolith increments due to the numerous occulting crystals and weak contrast in the increments (Uozumi, 1993). Using a newly developed heating technique in processing statoliths, we estimated the age and growth of S. oualaniensis, assuming the daily deposition of increments.