Another factor is that it can be difficult to leave some of the larger individuals
behind while taking somewhat smaller specimens. The reason that might be valuable
is that most long-lived “fish” (cod, halibut, grouper, and lobster, ... , but not salmon
or squid) grow continuously, albeit with slowing, to great potential sizes, often at ages
measured in decades. Reaching those sizes, they are available to fewer predators, so
their death rate declines. The benefit of leaving them in the stock would be that very
large females of many species produce disproportionally more eggs than younger,
smaller females. For example, Bobko and Berkeley (2004) showed that black rockfish
(Sebastes melanops) in the California Current double their annual egg output per gram
of body tissue from 374 to 549 between age 6 (near earliest reproduction) and 16
years, while the total fecundity rises from 300,000 to a million embryos (their young
are released after hatching). Moreover, big, old, fat, fecund female fish (lately called
BOFFFF or just BOFF) actually produce bigger and better individual eggs by
supplying them with more oil and protein. As demonstrated by Berkeley et al. (2004),
larvae from those eggs develop and grow faster, are more resistant to starvation (Fig.
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