Length–girth relations of fishes from a Mediterranean lagoon system

Abstract

We estimated the relations between total length (TL) and opercular (Gope) and maximum (Gmax) girths, for the eight most representative lagoon fish species in Mesolonghi–Etolikon lagoons within 2015–2017 (June through December). The following species were studied: Chelon saliens (Risso, 1810); Chelon auratus (Risso, 1810); Chelon ramada (Risso, 1827); Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758; Diplodus puntazzo (Walbaum, 1792); Diplodus sargus (Linnaeus, 1758); Sparus aurata Linnaeus, 1758; Dicentrarchus labrax (Linnaeus, 1758). For five of these species (C. saliens, C. auratus, C. ramada, S. aurata, and D. labrax) LGR estimates were not available. Results showed that both Gope and Gmax increased significantly linearly with TL for all studied species with all r2 values being higher than 0.862. When Gmax values were plotted against TL for all species combined, two significant (ANCOVA, P < 0.05) length–girth relations were identified corresponding to different body shapes. The implications of girth measurements for lagoon gear selectivity estimates are also discussed.

Keywords

• fish girth
• fish morphology
• barrier traps
• Mesolo