Lifetime hormone profiles for a long-lived teleost: opercula reveal novel estimates of age-specific reproductive parameters and stress trends in yelloweye rockfish (<i>Sebastes ruberrimus</i>)

Fisheries management relies on accurate population models for estimating biomass and setting harvest goals; however, physiological data reproductive parameters in are difficult to acquire. Here, lifetime (progesterone estradiol) stress-related (cortisol) hormones were measured annually deposited growth increments female yelloweye rockfish ( Sebastes ruberrimus) opercula N = 22 females, sampled ages 1–90 years). Analyses of these profiles (∼1-year resolution) provided estimates (complete puberty) functional age sexual maturity (females spawn contribute larvae the population) spawning frequency, with trends reproduction stress. The descriptive mean was 11 ± 1 years (standard error (SE)), whereas 17 2 years. estimate marginal frequency 45.1% 5.1%. Stress (∼15% females experienced distress events) suggested that potentially resilient or not exposed chronic stressors. Although preliminary, we provide a novel method age-specific proper age-based modeling human-targeted teleost.