Lamprakis M.K., Kallianiotis A.A., Montopoulos D.K., Stergiou K.I, 2003 Weight-length relationships of fishes discarded by trawlers in the North Aegean sea. Acta Ichthyol. Piscat. 33 (2): 145-152

Background. Weight-length relationships of discarded species can de used for the estimation of discarded quantities per species, if the species ′length-frequency distribution is known. In this study, we present weight-length for 26 fish species discarded by commercial trawlers.

Materials and methods. We present weight -length relationships (W=a TL b ), for 26 discarded fish species, from samples caught with commercial trawlers (diamond cod- end mesh size: 14 mm; nominal bar length), from October 1996 to May 1998 in the North Aegean Sea.

Results. The values of the exponent b of the weight-length relationships of the 26 fish species differed between years for six species and ranged from 1.507 to 3.596 (median and mean: 3.068 and 2.968 respectively).

Conclusion. Weight -length relationships for 5 out of the 26 fish species are presented for the first time.

Keywords: fish, weight-length relationships, discards, Thracian Sea, Aegean Sea