Program on the Environment

The ear stones or “otoliths” are paired bones inside of every fish cranium. It’s critical to study the otoliths because otolith data can provide fish life-history information to help management agencies to conserve fish species and sustain fisheries. Otolith data contributes to our basic understanding of population dynamics, species ecology, and overfishing. The NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) Age and Growth Program are planning to use a new technique called “Near-Infrared (NIR) spectrum” to identify the known-age early growth rate between captive-reared and wild Pacific Ocean Perch using otoliths. During my internship, I helped the Age and Growth Program to collect otolith data by applying a software package; such as morphometric measurements and use the NIR spectrum to scan all the otoliths to clarify pattern interpretation in otoliths of young Pacific Ocean Perch. This data may be useful to find out the date of birth of fishes by using a growth rate equation. It may also help future studies of the early growth rate pattern of young fishes more generally.