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Total and fork length of a fish. Total length (TL) is the length of a fish measured from the tip of the snout to the tip of the longer lobe of the caudal fin, usually measured with the lobes compressed along the midline. It is a straight-line measure, not measured over the curve of the body.
Aristotle (ca. 340 B.C.) may have been the first scientist to speculate on the use of hard parts of fishes to determine age, stating in Historica Animalium that “the age of a scaly fish may be told by the size and hardness of its scales.” [4] However, it was not until the development of the microscope that more detailed studies were performed on the structure of scales. [5]
Standard weight equation for largemouth bass [1] and burbot [2] (fish). Standard weight in fish is the typical or expected weight at a given total length for a specific species of fish. Most standard weight equations are for freshwater fish species. Weight-length curves are developed by weighing and measuring samples of fish from the population.
Starting to harvest a previously unharvested population will always lead to a decrease in the population size. That is, it is impossible for a harvested population to remain at its original carrying capacity. Instead, the population will either stabilize at a new lower equilibrium size or, if the harvesting rate is too high, decline to zero.
Fishing mortality (F) can be estimated by dividing the catch by the mean stock size. The catch includes annual commercial and recreational landings, along with dead discards. Bycatch discards would be estimated by estimating the percent of fish that are captured in a certain gear and the mortality associated with being captured in this gear.
The condition index in fish is a way to measure the overall health of a fish by comparing its weight with the typical weight of other fish of the same kind and of the same length. The condition index is its actual weight divided by its expected weight, times 100%. A fish of normal weight has a condition index of 100 percent.
An example of using age class structure to learn about a population is a regular bell curve for the population of 1-5 year-old fish with a very low population for the 3-year-olds. An age class structure with gaps in population size like the one described earlier implies a bad spawning year 3 years ago in that species. [7]
Size–frequency distribution can be used to study the growth and development of fish in a population. [3] By measuring the size of individual fish at different ages or stages of development and plotting the size–frequency distribution, researchers can understand how the size of fish changes over time and how this is influenced by environmental factors.