“Instantaneous” growth rates of fish scales and their use in studies of fish populations

A technique has been devised for measuring the incorporation of 14C-glycine into fish scales. This provides an indication of the rate of growth of the scale at the time of sampling. The growth of fish scales is classically considered to be related to the growth of the whole fish' hence the method devised has been used to investigate aspects of fish growth in a number of environmental situations.