Author : Sanchez-Escalona, Katherine P.; Aliño, Porfirio A.

Summary : Age and growth dynamics of Conomurex luhuanus were investigated to determine the population structure. Age-specific change in shell shape determined with geometric morphometrics revealed discrimination of shape between 0-3 years old at 99–100% while 3–4 years old can be separated with 81% certainty. Using the age discrimination data, K and L∞ were estimated at 1.00 year-1 and 7.28 cm, respectively. Recruitment is bimodal with natural mortality (M) of 0.71 and fishing mortality (F) approximated at 3.92 year-1. The exploitation rate (E) is 0.85 year-1, indicating probable overharvesting of the population under study. The presence of a deep-water population, age-specific burying behavior, and bimodal recruitment pattern are possible resilience factors.