A Bayesian hierarchical meta-analysis of growth for the genusSebastesin the eastern Pacific Ocean

We conducted a meta-analysis of growth for 46 species of the genus Sebastes in the eastern Pacific Ocean using a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate parameters, to investigate growth variability, and to elucidate meaningful biological covariates. Growth in terms of maximum attainable size (L∞) ranged from 12 to 80 cm, and instantaneous growth rates varied by over an order of magnitude (K; 0.03–0.34·year–1). Results from this method also confirm the theoretical, but often untested, view that growth parameters L∞and K are negatively correlated among populations or species of fish; Bayesian credibility intervals for correlation ranged from –0.2 to –0.7, with the posterior median of –0.4. The Bayesian hierarchical growth model showed less variability in growth parameters and lower correlations among parameters than those from standard techniques used in population ecology, suggesting that the absolute value of the correlation between L∞and K may be lower than the general perception in the ecological literature. Exploration of several covariates revealed that asymptotic size varied positively as a function of the size at 50% maturity. Finally, posterior probability distributions of the hyperparameters from this analysis provide plausible informative priors of growth for stock assessments of data-poor species.