Radiocarbon From Nuclear Testing Applied to Age Validation of Black Drum, Pogonias cromis

-Radiocarbon < 14C >in the world's oceans increased sharply between 1950 and 1970 as a result of the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Through comparison with the 14C time series reconstructed from atmospheric measurements and marine carbonates, Kalish, in 1993, used the 14C concentration measured in fish otolith cores as a means of confirming the annulus-based age estimates for some South Pacific fish species. Here we report the preand postbomb 14C chronology of North Atlantic adult black drum assays, 14C in otolith cores increased sharply between 1958 and 1964, with a timing and magnitude which was very similar to that of the atmospheric bomb 14C signal. The correspondence between the two 14C chronologies indicates that the annulusbased age assignments were accurate on average to within 1-3 yr. Differences between the black drum ~C chronology and that of other marine carbonates in the North Atlantic are explained by the estuarine habitat of young-ofthe-year black drum and by the fact that estuarine ~C values more closely reflect atmospheric values than surface ocean values. At present, there is no other age-validation technique that can confirm the absolute age of long-lived fish species with comparable levels of