Abstract
Age and growth of the black rockfish Sebastes inermis off Miura Peninsula in central Japan were estimated from otoliths of 359 fish. Most of otoliths had a translucent margin from April to September and an opaque margin from October to May. The translucent zone was formed once a year and hence it can be used as an annulus. Growth of S. inermis was expressed by von Bertalanffy growth equation as Lt=211.5[1-exp{-0.277(t+0.991)} for males and Lt=282.2[1-exp{-0.166(t+1.291)}] for females, where Lt is standard length in mm and t is age in years. The maximum age in the sample was 6 years old for males and 7 years old for females. At ages up to 3 years old there was little difference in length by sex, but females over 3 years old grew faster than males.
