Edad y crecimiento del dorado Coryphaena hippurus, en el Golfo de Tehuantepec, México

the dolphinfish coryphaena hippurus, is one of the main species caught by the artisanal fisheries in the tehuantepec gulf, mexico. age was estimated by counting growth rings in the scales of 266 fish. dolphinfish size ranged from 20 to 140 cm fork length (lf). the length-weight relationship showed negative allometry in females and positive in males. the relationship between lf and scale radius for combined data of both sexes was estimated as: lf = 37.829 r + 3.8209 (r2 = 0.8276). the estimated value of the average percent error (1.3%) was considered acceptable. an annual periodicity was identified by a growth mark; marginal increment index indicated that a single annulus is formed yearly in april-may, which is related to the gonadosomatic index. scales reading analysis allowed for the determination of up to four growth rings. similar data was obtained from length frequency analysis by kernel density estimates. results of von bertalanffy's growth function obtained by simple non linear regression were: l∞ = 125.82 cm lf, k = 0.9955 year-1, to = -0.037 years for females, and l∞ = 126.29 cm lf, k = 1.0 year-1, t0 = -0.0385 years for males. from the analysis of monthly length frequency distribution of 7371 dolphinfish, the values obtained were: l∞ = 166.5 cm, k = 1.1 year-1 for females, and l∞ = 167.7 cm, k = 1.3 year-1 for males. longevity is estimated to be at least 4 years. no differences in growth were found between sexes. estimated growth parameters were within the range of previous values reported for the dolphinfish at other latitudes and showed the rapid growth of the species.