It has proved difficult to assign with confidence sardine ovaries to the six-stage macroscopic maturity scale proposed by Pinto & Andreu, which was drawn up using macroscopic and microscopic criteria. The extent to which sardine ovaries classified on the basis of their external appearance had been assigned to the ‘correct’ microscopic maturity stage was determined. There was a great deal of misclassification, most of which concerned the allocation of ovaries to Phase III and Phase V(III). The problem can be resolved, without the loss of any significant biological information, by combining Phase III and V(III). The loss of information by merging these two stages is negligible compared with the gain in precision and sampling time. Subsequently, a simplified macroscopic maturity scale with just five stages is proposed. The immature and resting ovaries should be grouped in just one maturity stage, Phase I, as proposed by Pinto & Andreu.
