COMPARISONS OF MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS AND LENGTH-WEIGHT RELATIONSHIP OF EUROPEAN EEL (ANGUILLA ANGUILLA L., 1758) IN TURKISH INLAND WATERS

Abstract

European eels are found in all European rivers draining to seas. Comparisons of some morphometric characteristics and length-weight relationship parameters of European eel “Anguilla anguilla” collected from inland waters of Turkey were performed in this work. The 108 fish samples used in the current work were taken from the museum of Faculty of Fisheries, Ege University; they were captured from different running water bodies. Morphometric features like total length, weight, head length, head height, maximum body height, eye diameter, inter-orbital distance, snout length, dorsal fin length, anal fin length, pectoral fin length, predorsal distance, and preanal distance of the fish were measured. In addition, head length/maximum body height, head length/snout length, head length/head height, head length/total length, eye diameter/head length, eye diameter/inter-orbital distance, eye diameter/snout length and predorsal distance/preanal distance ratios were calculated. The analysed specimens ranged in total length from 12.70 to 64.10 cm, and in weight between 3.21 and 416.14 g. The length-weight relationship parameters were estimated as a=0.011, b=3.154; while r2 was calculated as 0.956.