Life in the Slow Lane: Ecology and Conservation of Long-Lived Marine Animals

The Complex Life History of Tilefish Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps and Vulnerability to Exploitation

Churchill B. Grimes and Stephen C. Turner

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781888569155.ch3

Abstract.—Tilefish stocks along the Atlantic coast of the United States have a history of rapidly becoming overfished. Since 1916 when the unexploited southern New England– mid-Atlantic stock yielded 4,500 metric tons (mt), there have been three 20- to 25-year cycles of rapidly increasing landings followed by equally rapid declines to very low levels of catch. Landings have exceeded the long-term potential yield (approximately 1,200 mt) during each of the periods of high catches, especially from 1977 and 1982 when the fishing mortality rate was three times that necessary to obtain maximum yield per recruit.

The complex life history of tilefish may have made them exceptionally vulnerable to exploitation. They are relatively long lived, slow growing and late maturing; for example, females attain 35 years and 95 cm fork length (FL), and mature in 5–7 years. Adults construct shelters (e.g., burrows) in portions of the continental shelf where there is both malleable substratum and relatively warm temperature (9–14°C). Thus, stocks are restricted to specific identifiable portions of the outer continental shelf, making them especially vulnerable to fishing. Reproductive and fishery data indirectly indicate that sexually dimorphic and behaviorally dominant males receive higher fishing mortality resulting in unusually rapid declines in reproductive success of the stock.