Abstract
ABSTRACTA fundamental aspect of fisheries science is measuring body length. Humans are inherently prone to error despite systems and provisions made to reduce it. We evaluated length measurement error (herein, referred to as “error”) and digit preference from fish studies conducted on the Colorado River and Little Colorado River in Arizona. Empirical error estimates varied among fish species and generally increased with fish size. We identified a digit preference for numbers ending in zero and five, which was exacerbated with larger sizes. Error effects on growth estimates were largest for fish recaptured after a short time, and we suggest guarding against the error phenomenon by removing data from fish captured and recaptured within a minimum of 30 days. Human, situation, and specimen induced error factors are described. Fisheries professionals should be cognizant of error factors, especially in situations when high precision and accuracy are required and results have important management implications.
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