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Stylet increment analysis (SIA) is a method recently developed to age octopuses; it involves the enumeration of daily growth increments within stylets (an internal shell). To examine the potential of SIA in a merobenthic octopus species, SIA was applied to Macroctopus maorum collected from southeast Australia and New Zealand (n = 147). The stylets had clear concentric growth increments and a core-like region. However, low increment counts (≤ 224 d) produced non-feasibly high (≤ 21.7% body weight per day) instantaneous growth rates, based on the assumption that increment number relates to age (d). In the light of these results, the issues surrounding the application of SIA to merobenthic octopuses is discussed, particularly in relation to the lack of understanding in regard to stylet development in the early life history stages and the importance of validating age at first increment formation.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	age determination, merobenthic, octopus, stylet increment analysis (SIA)
Research Division:	Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences
Research Group:	Fisheries sciences
Research Field:	Fisheries management
Objective Division:	Animal Production and Animal Primary Products
Objective Group:	Fisheries - wild caught
Objective Field:	Wild caught edible molluscs
UTAS Author:	Doubleday, ZA (Dr Zoe Doubleday)
UTAS Author:	White, J (Mr James White)
UTAS Author:	Pecl, GT (Professor Gretta Pecl)
UTAS Author:	Semmens, JM (Professor Jayson Semmens)
ID Code:	72054
Year Published:	2011
Web of Science® Times Cited:	14
Deposited By:	Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration
Deposited On:	2011-08-18
Last Modified:	2018-03-20
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