Precision of Estimated Ages of Lake Trout from Five Calcified Structures

Precisions of estimated ages from vertebrae, cleithra, opercular bones, otoliths, and scales were measured in replicated trials on samples from lake trout Salvelinus namaycush from interior Alaska. Ages from all structures were similar for sexually immature lake trout. For mature lake trout, estimated ages from otoliths and from opercular bones were the most precise, although ages from opercular bones were significantly younger by a year than ages from otoliths. Estimated ages from cleithra and whole vertebrae were, respectively, too imprecise and too low for these structures to be useful in age validation studies. On this basis, otoliths and opercular bones can be used in age validation studies and scales can be used to estimate the age of immature lake trout.