I examined the growth of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) from the southwest coast of Vancouver Island using data for over 83 000 fish seined between 1975 and 1996. Size-at-age (length, total mass) of recruits (age 3) was negatively related to parental biomass. Length was also negatively related to sea temperature over the first growing season and positively related to salinity later in the third growing season. Prerecruit effects explained variations in mass and length for adult herring ages 4 and 5, respectively. Growth of adults was described as growth increments (growth rates). Seasonal growth in length for adults was assumed to be a linear function of time, and growth in mass an exponential function. Daily growth rates for length were negatively related to initial length. Instantaneous daily growth rates in mass were a negative function of initial mass, adult biomass, and sea temperature in August. Interannual variations in condition suggest that adults grow differently in mass than they do in length. I suggest that length is not synonymous with mass as a measure of adult growth. Consequently, it provides little, if any, information on surplus energy accumulation by adults and therefore adult fish contribution to stock productivity.
