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Weight–length relationship in fish populations reflects environmental regulation on growth

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Abstract

The biological meaning of the parameters a and b of the empirical and in fisheries science and management omnipresent relationship Weight = a * Length b is still unclear; the depicting body size trajectory has been associated thus far with body form and with food/energy considerations. When I analyzed a 116 species large and 36 years long subset of the port biosampling program of the US Virgin Islands fishery, Eastern Caribbean, using regression prediction intervals and fish life traits, I found out that the power law model is not a perfect fit due to individual variation. Concurrent stunting and starvation are generated at marginal values of the a and b parameters; their frequency is independent of fish body form and habitat type; dependent on species, trophic level and life stage; and changes the fundamental fish body size growth model from (log transformed) linear to curvilinear for three demo species. Also, variation in the parameter b could not be explained by trophic level, body form or habitat type. An alternative explanation is proposed, where b is the “accelerator” and a is the “break”; it expresses the correspondence of fish condition to environmental condition.

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Data availability

All data analyzed are available by the South East Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration upon request (joshua.bennett@noaa.gov) or at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/q?keywords=USVI.

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Acknowledgements

I thank the South East Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (joshua.bennett@noaa.gov) for the 1980–2015 data extracted from the USVI port biosampling monitoring program.

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    Angela Dikou

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Dikou, A. Weight–length relationship in fish populations reflects environmental regulation on growth. Hydrobiologia 850, 335–346 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-05072-8

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