Length – Weight Relationships of 12 Commercial Fish Species Caught with Static Fishing Gear in the N. Ionian Sea (Greece)

Abstract

This study presents the length-weight relationships (LWR) for 12 commercial fish species from coastal waters off South Corfu Island (N. Ionian Sea, Greece). All fish originated from the catches made by a single artisanal fisherman during April – September 2009. Multiple types of predominantly static fishing gear were used, mainly gillnets (mesh size: 28 mm) operated at depths of 10–40 m and trammel nets (mesh sizes: 22, 24, 28, 32, 34, 36, 40 mm) operated at depths of 7–70 m. Moreover, bottom longlines and trolling lines were occasionally used, at depths of 20–50 m and 35 m, respectively. Length (TL) in cm and weight in g of all the individuals in the catches were measured in the laboratory. Estimates of the b parameter ranged between species from 2.652 to 3.593. For none of the fish species examined in the present paper has LWR information been published before for the N. Ionian Sea, and for six of them (i.e. for Epinephelus costae, Labrus viridis, Oblada melanura, Sarda sarda, Scomber colias and Scorpaena porcus) there is no LWR information for the Ionian Sea as a whole. The results of this study may thus contribute in fisheries management and marine conservation in the Ionian Sea by providing baseline LWR information for several commercial fish species based on samples of local populations. Moreover, this study contributes in complementing the few LWR datasets that exist in the international literature for E. costae and L. viridis.