Biological Data for the brilliant pomfret (Eumegistus illustris) off the coast of Reunion Island (SW Indian Ocean) between March 2014 and March 2015

The data come from the European project “ANCRE-DMX2” (Indicateurs biologiques et écologiques pour une gestion durable des stocks de poissons DéMersauX profonds d’intérêt halieutique à La Réunion). The brilliant pomfret (Eumegistus illustris) occurs in the western part of the Indian Ocean and the western and central Pacific Ocean. A total of 148 E. illustris were sampled in the landings of the French local artisanal fisheries (deep-water handline on electric reel), in the eastern part of Reunion Island (21°.10 S latitude; 55°.30 E longitude). Monthly samples were collected between March 2014 and March 2015. All fresh specimens were examined in the laboratory for Total Length (TL, mm), Standard Length (SL, mm), Fork length (FL, mm) Total wet weight (W, g) and sex. Since growth of E. illustris has not been investigated before, calibration of the method for age and growth structure determination was needed. Different calcified structures (otolith, scale, opercular bone, vertebra…) can be used for the age determination of fishes. For each fish, the sagittal otoliths, a few scales and opercular bones were used in order to estimate and compare the age of fish between three calcified structures. Morphological parameters of otoliths (length, width, area and weight) were extracted by the TNPC software (http://www.tnpc.fr/fr/tnpc.html). Different parts of opercular (opercular and sub_opercular bones) were sampled from left and right head sides. Depending of fish size, opercular were boiled during 5 to 15 minutes to clean any excess of flesh. The age data were estimated from only opercular bones.