Moutopoulos D.K., Dimitriou N., Nystas T., Koutsikopoulos C. 2017. Length–girth relations of fishes from a Mediterranean lagoon system. Acta Ichthyol. Piscat.  47 (4): 397–400.

Abstract. We estimated the relations between total length (TL) and opercular (G_ope) and maximum (G_max) girths, for the eight most representative lagoon fish species in Mesolonghi–Etolikon lagoons within 2015–2017 (June through December). The following species were studied: Chelon saliens (Risso, 1810); Chelon auratus (Risso, 1810); Chelon ramada (Risso, 1827); Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758; Diplodus puntazzo (Walbaum, 1792); Diplodus sargus (Linnaeus, 1758); Sparus aurata Linnaeus, 1758; Dicentrarchus labrax (Linnaeus, 1758). For five of these species (C. saliens, C. auratus, C. ramada, S. aurata, and D. labrax) LGR estimates were not available. Results showed that both G_ope and G_max increased significantly linearly with TL for all studied species with all r² values being higher than 0.862. When G_max values were plotted against TL for all species combined, two significant (ANCOVA, P < 0.05) length–girth relations were identified corresponding to different body shapes. The implications of girth measurements for lagoon gear selectivity estimates are also discussed.

Keywords: fish girth, fish morphology, barrier traps, Mesolonghi–Etolikon lagoons, Greece