Age Determination and Growth of Swordfish Xiphias gladius L., 1758 in the Aegean Sea  <B>Age Determination and Growth of Swordfish Xiphias gladius L., 1758 in the Aegean Sea</B><P>N. TSIMENIDES(1) and G. TSERPES(2)</B><I><BR> '<BR> (</I>1)<I>University of Crete, Department of Biology, Iraklion, Crete (Greece)</I><I><BR> (</I>2)<I>Institute of Marine Biology of Crete, P.O. Box 2214, </I>71003 <I>Iraklion,</I> <I>Crete (Greece)</I> <P> (Accepted for publication 23 June 1989)<B><P> ABSTRACT</B><P> Tsimenides, N. and Tserpes, G., 1989. Age determination and growth of Swordfish <I>Xiphias gladius</I> L., 1758 in the Aegean Sea. <I>Fish. Res., </I>8: 159-168.<P> Age and growth of swordfish <I>Xiphias gladius </I>L. were estimated using cross-sections from the second anal fin spine of 974 animals sampled from commercial longline catches in the Aegean Sea. Using this method 90 percent of all spine sections were aged satisfactorily, although readability declined in the larger size classes. A significant linear relationship was found between fin spine radius and lower jaw fork length (LJFL= 60.92 + 23.37S). The von Bertalanffy growth equations for length of males and females were<P> Lt = 193.85 [1- exp ( - 0.34)(<I>t</I> +1.22)]<P> and<P> Lt = 220.12 [1- exp ( - 0.25)(<I>t</I> +1.52)]<P> respectively. These results indicate that females grow faster than males after an estimated age of 3 years. There was no significant difference in the length-weight relationship between males and females.<I><P> Fisheries Research, </I>8 (1989) 159-168 <P>