Age-length keys availability for Atlantic bluefin tuna captured in the eastern management area

Abstract

This paper analyzes the available direct ageing information in the last decade from Atlantic bluefin tuna caught in the eastern management area. To investigate differences among ALKs, a standard Von Bertalanffy growth function (VB) was fit to length at age data for each stratum. A deficient convergence of VB fitting to the asymptotic length due to the scarcity of old specimens was found for all available ALKs. After these analyses some records were identified as outliers (reading methodological issues) and removed from the data base.