Age and growth of shortfin mako in the South Atlantic

The shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus (Lamnidae), is regularly caught as by-catch in pelagic longline fisheries and is among the most vulnerable sharks to this fishery. The age and growth of I. oxyrinchus was studied along a wide South Atlantic region. Data from 332 specimens ranging in size from 90 to 330 cm fork length (FL) for females and 81 to 250 cm FL for males were analysed. Growth models were fitted using the von Bertalanffy growth equation re-parameterised to calculate L0, instead of t0, and a modification of this equation using the known size at birth. The von Bertalanffy growth equation with fixed L0 (size at birth = 63 cm FL) with resulting growth parameters of Linf = 218.5 cm FL, k = 0.170 year-1 for males and Linf = 263.1 cm FL, k = 0.112 year-1 for females, seemed to underestimate maximum length for this species, while overestimating k. Given the poorly estimated parameters we cannot, to this point, recommend the use of the South Atlantic growth curves.