Age and growth pattern of Elegant sculpin Bero elegans in Peter the Great Bay (Japan Sea)

Abstract

The Elegant sculpin Bero elegans is a plentiful but little-studied fish species that lives in the coastal shallow waters of the north-western part of the Japan Sea. In the study reported here, we assessed for the first time the life span, growth pattern, and age at maturity of this fish, based on growth and maturation observations and an analysis of the structure of otoliths from fish captured in Paris and Zhitkov bays, Russky Island, Peter the Great Bay, Sea of Japan in the period 2018–2022. The life span is estimated to be 47 months for females and 40 months for males. Males generally grow faster than females, but groups of slow-growing and fast-growing males that form during maturation are found. Both males and females spawn for the first time at 2 years of age. The von Bertalanffy’s growth function with three constants was used to calculate growth (L_t = estimated length as a function of time t [months]; L_∞ = theoretical asymptotic length; t₀ = theoretical time at 0 length; k = constant of linear growth), with the following values obtained: L_∞ = 176.294, k = 0.033436, t₀ = − 2.3394 at R = 0.95 for males; L_∞ = 118.389, k = 0.0536, t₀ = − 2.3464 at R = 0.94 for females (where R is otolith radius).