On the biology and growth of the anglerfish Lophius budegassa Spinola, 1807 in the Spanish Mediterranean: a preliminary approach

This study concerns the biology and growth of the species Lophius budegassa from data obtained on annual spring cruises from 1994 to 2002. The black anglerfish had a very wide distribution, appearing in all surveyed zones from depths of 15 to 757 m but with greater abundance between 100 and 500 m. Sexual segregation by depth was observed, since the male proportion increased with depth. The length-weight relationship was negatively allometric, with growth curves being different for males and females. The parameters of the specialized von Bertalanffy growth model were estimated by two methods: length frequency analysis on a distribution composed of 1301 individuals, and age readings of the 170 first rays of the dorsal fin (illicia) sections collected between 1994 and 1998. Other growth models such as generalized von Bertalanffy, Richards, logistic, Gompertz and Schnute, were fitted. The results obtained are compared with previous studies.