Length‐weight relationships of 4 coral‐reef fish species encountered in Gilbert Islands coastal artisanal fisheries

Abstract

Length-weight relationships of 4 coral-reef fish species regularly encountered in artisanal coastal fisheries across 5 atolls of the Gilbert Islands, Kiribati, were obtained. The data were collected through creel surveys undertaken randomly over a period of 20–100 days each year between 2013 and 2020. The main fishing methods used were gillnetting (minimum legal mesh size of 63.5 mm), handlining and spearfishing. Fish were weighed using a digital scale calibrated to ±1–5 g and measured on a flat one-meter ruler delineated in 5 mm increments. Parameters a and b extracted from the general form of the equation describing the relationship between length and weight (W = aLb), associated 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) and correlation coefficients (r2) are presented here.