Weight–length relationships for 46 fish species of the Portuguese west coast

Summary Weight–length (W–L) relationships were estimated for 46 species of fish captured off the western Portuguese coast between April 1994 and September 1995. The best-represented family was Scyliorhinidae (2677 fishes), followed by Gadidae (1871), Sparidae (1682) and Merlucciidae (1108). The estimates for the parameter b of the W–L relationship (W = aLb) ranged between 2.171 and 3.873, with a median of 3.124. Significant variations in b were found at seasonal level for striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus), axillary seabream (Pagellus acarne), greater weever (Trachinus draco) and the sardine (Sardina pilchardus), at the regional level for Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), and between sexes for the small-spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula).

[1]  W. Ricker.  Linear Regressions in Fishery Research , 1973 .

[2]  P. Safran.  Theoretical analysis of the weight-length relationship in fish juveniles , 1992 .

[3]  J. Dulčić,et al.  Weight-length relationships for 40 fish species in the eastern Adriatic (Croatian waters) , 1996 .

[4]  K. Stergiou,et al.  Length-weight and length-length relationships of fish species from the Aegean Sea (Greece) , 2002 .

[5]  K. Martin-Smith.  Length/weight relationships of fishes in a diverse tropical freshwater community, Sabah, Malaysia , 1996 .

[6]  Karim Erzini,et al.  Weight-length relationships for selected fish species of the small-scale demersal fisheries of the south and south-west coast of Portugal , 1997 .

[7]  Rodrigo de Oliveira Campos,et al.  Allometry coefficient variations of the length–weight relationship of skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) caught in the southwest South Atlantic , 2002 .

[8]  M. Gaspar,et al.  Weight–length relationships for 50 selected fish species of the Algarve coast (southern Portugal) , 2002 .

[9]  J. H. Zar,et al.  Biostatistical Analysis, 3rd edn. , 1996 .

[10]  H. M. Krugg.  The azorean blackspot seabream pagellus bogaraveo bruennich 1768 teleostei sparidae age and growth , 1989 .

[11]  Karim Erzini,et al.  Weight–length relationships for fish species discarded in commercial fisheries of the Algarve (southern Portugal) , 2003 .

[12]  M. T. Dinis,et al.  Age and growth of megrim Lepidorhombus boscii, Risso of the Portuguese continental coast , 1993 .

[13]  Yongshun Xiao.  What are the units of the parameters in the power function for the length-weight relationship ? , 1998 .

[14]  K. Stergiou,et al.  Weight-length relationships for 33 fish species in Greek waters , 1995 .

[15]  J. M. Casselman,et al.  The biology of fish growth , 1988 .

[16]  C. Déniel.  Relations entre l'activité reproductrice et la croissance chez les poissons plats de la baie de Douarnenez , 1984 .

[17]  J. Beyer.  On length-weight relationships. Part II: Computing mean weights from length statistics , 1991 .

[18]  P. Whitehead,et al.  Fishes of the North-Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Vol. 1 , 1986 .

[19]  J. Albaret,et al.  Relation longueur-poids pour 52 espèces de poissons des estuaires et lagunes de l'Afrique de l'Ouest , 2003 .

[20]  Karim Erzini,et al.  Aspects of the biology and gillnet selectivity of the axillary seabream (Pagellus acarne, Risso) and common pandora (Pagellus erythrinus, Linnaeus) from the Algarve (south Portugal) , 1995 .

[21]  R. Nash,et al.  Length-weight relationships for 21 coastal fish species of the Azores, north-eastern Atlantic , 2001 .