Otoliths are one of the factors that can be used for discrimination and classification of fish stocks. Both their inherent structure and their chemical composition are of huge assistance in understanding the dynamics of fish populations. They are useful in a sclerochronological context for better understanding the age of individuals in a population and in a chemical context for exploring the extent to which individuals have shared a common life history and environment. Otolith analysis will therefore prove indispensable in adding to our understanding of the events that occur within the lifetime of individuals.
Genetics, unlike otoliths, record the pattern of descent of individuals within a population. Investigating the number and types of genetic alleles present in a population can shed light on the origins of a fish stock in addition to revealing the amount of mixing between populations within a stock. With genetics, we can also explore patterns in the history of a species in terms of evolutionary bottle-necks and ongoing speciation.

Using genetics and otolith chemistry in unison, we will be able to uncover a great deal of information about the current status of local fish populations so that we might better manage resources in the future.

Beyond their application in stock identification, fish otoliths are one of the more common hard parts used in fish aging. Aging is crucial to fisheries management as fish age is used to calculate mortality rate, growth rate and productivity. Developing techniques to accurately age fish will therefore have numerous advantages in better managing Azorean stocks of commercial fish.