Preliminary studies on age and growth of Dissostichus eleginoides in the Ob-Lena Bank

Preliminary studies on the age and growth of Dissostichus eleginoides sampled in the 2007/08 season in the Ob-Lena Bank were carried out. The ages of 214 of 3,013 fish sampled by Observers were estimated. The estimated ages ranged from 5 to 46 years for males and from 5 to 50 years for females. Five to eighteen years gave large contribution to the total age groups for both sexes. Females grew at a faster rate and reach a larger size than males. We took several advises and comments about the methods of otolith readings by experienced readers of AAD. One of these is that the first ring was generally identified within the primordium and thus many of age counts were overestimated. We would recount annuli for the present 214 otolith samples and count annuli for the newly added 300 samples referring these advices and comments.