Fisheries Research 149 (2014) 61–68 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Fisheries Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fishres Review Age, growth, and mortality of the mullet Mugil liza in Brazil’s southern and southeastern coastal regions Thaís Garbin a,∗ , Jorge Pablo Castello a , Paul Gerhard Kinas b a Fundac ¸ ão Universidade do Rio Grande, Instituto de Oceanografia, Av. Itália km 8, Brazil b Fundac ¸ ão Universidade do Rio Grande, Instituto de Matemática, Física e Estatística, Av. Itália km 8, Brazil article info Article history: Received 5 March 2013 Received in revised form 6 September 2013 Accepted 7 September 2013 Keywords: Growth Mortality Exploitation rate Juvenile ring Mullet abstract Concern has increased regarding the stock exploitation status of the mullet, Mugil liza, fishery resource, because industrial catches currently exceed artisanal catches. A growing trend in mullet catches involves the overexploitation of other resources and the commercialization of mullet roes. This study complements existing information about the mullet’s life cycle by providing estimates on growth and mortality rates for the stock. The mullet, M. liza, has a relatively low growth rate, , at approximately 0.17 year -1 , a 10.5 year longevity, and an asymptotic length of 662 mm. Based on age–length structure, mullet caught at sea, in both coastal areas and continental shelves, are significantly larger and older than mullet caught at the Patos Lagoon Estuary by artisanal fishermen. The total mortality rate, Z, was estimated to be approximately 0.77 year -1 , and the exploitation rate was higher than 0.5 in 3 different scenarios tested with different natural mortality rates calculated in this work. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 61 2. Methodology .......................................................................................................................................... 62 2.1. Age determination ............................................................................................................................ 62 2.2. Age validation ................................................................................................................................. 62 2.3. Estimation of the von Bertalanffy parameters ................................................................................................ 62 2.4. Juvenile ring ................................................................................................................................... 63 2.5. Mortality and exploitation rate ............................................................................................................... 63 3. Results ................................................................................................................................................ 63 3.1. Age–length composition ...................................................................................................................... 63 3.2. Age validation ................................................................................................................................. 64 3.3. The vB growth model adjustment ............................................................................................................ 64 3.4. Juvenile rings .................................................................................................................................. 65 3.5. Mortality estimates ........................................................................................................................... 65 4. Discussion and conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 66 4.1. Juvenile ring ................................................................................................................................... 66 4.2. Mortality and exploitation rates .............................................................................................................. 66 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. 67 References ............................................................................................................................................ 67 1. Introduction The mullet, Mugil liza, a pelagic fish belonging to the Mugili- dae family, is found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Venezuela ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 5381314527. E-mail addresses: thais.tt@gmail.com (T. Garbin), docjpc@furg.br (J.P. Castello), labest@gmail.com (P.G. Kinas). to Argentina (Menezes, 1983; Whitfield et al., 2012). Recently, Menezes et al. (2010) confirmed that Mugil platanus and M. liza, which were previously considered to be two distinct species, should be treated as a single species with the name M. liza. M. liza is a catadromous fish, which at the Patos Lagoon Estuary (PLE), swims to the sea during fall, April and May for reproductive migration. Migra- tion begins when cold fronts with winds blowing from the south cool the surface waters (Vieira and Scalabrin, 1991) by approxi- mately 5 ◦ C. The cooling is then followed by saline wedge intrusion 0165-7836/$ – see front matter © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2013.09.008