Abstract
Data on growth and mortality were obtained for fantail sole, Xystreu- <br /><br />rys liolepis collected with otter trawls during 1 1 cruises off the western coast of <br /><br />Baja California, Mexico, from April 1988 to December 1990. The Bottom tem- <br /><br />perature varied between 11 to 19°C. In all, 712 X liolepis were caught and over <br /><br />the sampling period the sex ratio of males to females was 1:1.2. Males were <br /><br />smaller than females. The relationship between weight and length is described for <br /><br />males by, W = 1.1013 X 10 5 SL 3 - 121544 and for females by, W = 7.6274 X 10 6 <br /><br />SL 31932 . Von Bertalanffy growth parameters were determined to be: h^ = 443 mm <br /><br />SL, k = 0.16, to = -0.098 total sample, for males by, L M = 354.85 mm SL, k <br /><br />= 0.151, to = -0.918, and for females by, L^ = 444.68 mm SL, k = 0.1636, t <br /><br />= —0.423. The total mortality (Z) rate was 0.62 and the estimated fishing mor- <br /><br />tality (F) was 0.46. Although fantail sole is not a target species of commercial <br /><br />fisheries, it suffers high mortality as part of the bycatch in the shrimp fishery.
