Techniques and theory for processing otoliths from tropical marine fish
have developed only recently due to an historic misconception that these
organisms could not be aged. Otoliths are the most commonly used
structures from which daily, seasonal or annual records of a fish's
environmental history are inferred, and are also used as indicators of
migration patterns, home range, spatial distribution, stock structure
and life history events. A large proportion of projects undertaken on
tropical marine organisms involve removal and processing of calcified
structures such as otoliths, statoliths or vertebrae to retrieve
biological, biochemical or genetic information. Current techniques and
principles have evolved rapidly and are under constant modification and
these differ among laboratories, and more particularly among species and
within life history stages.
Tropical fish otoliths: Information for assessment, management and
ecology is a comprehensive description of the current status of
knowledge about otoliths in the tropics. This book has contributions
from leading experts in the field, encompassing a tropical perspective
on daily and annual ageing in fish and invertebrates, microchemistry,
interpreting otolith microstructure and using it to back-calculate life
history events, and includes a treatise on the significance of
validating periodicity in otoliths.