Age and growth of adult gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.) in the Aegean Sea

Age and growth of adult gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata were determined from 332 specimens (total N = 476), collected from purse-seiners, in the south-eastern Aegean Sea from November 2006 to January 2007. The fork length and body wet weight ranged from 26.5 to 51.5 cm (mean: 36.6 ± 0.18) and from 375 to 2600 g (mean: 1009.2 ± 14.16), respectively. Age groups were varied between 2 and 7. Growth parameters were estimated as L ∞ = 64.97 ± 12.93 cm, K = 0.14 ± 0.07 year −1 , t 0 = −2.47 ± 1.09 year −1 , and index of phi-prime was Φ′ = 2.772 ± 0.51. The length–weight relationship equation of all fish was calculated as W = 0.0515 × L 2.737 (r 2 = 0.95). The mean condition factor was estimated as 2.058. Mortalities (M, F and Z) and exploitation rate (E) of gilthead seabream from the Aegean Sea were 0.34 year −1 , 0.77 year −1 , 1.11 year −1 and 0.69 year −1 , respectively. The result of E indicated that the population was overexploited.