An Assessment of Weight-Length Relationships for Muskellunge,Northern Pike, and Chain Pickerel In Carlander's Handbook of Freshwater Fishery Biology

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the accuracy of Carlander's 1969 weight-length data for muskellunge, northern pike, and chain pickerel, identifying discrepancies and proposing corrected relationships based on independent data comparisons.

Contribution

It provides a critical assessment of historical fish weight-length data and offers revised relationships to improve accuracy for these species.

Findings

Identified discrepancies in Carlander's weight-length data.

Produced corrected weight-length relationships for the three fish species.

Highlighted the need for data validation in fishery biology references.

Abstract

Carlander's Handbook of Freshwater Fishery Biology (1969) contains life history data from many species of freshwater fish found in North America. It has been cited over 1200 times and used to produce standard-weight curves for some species. Recent work (Cole-Fletcher et al. 2011) suggests Carlander (1969) contains numerous errors in listed weight-length equations. This paper assesses the weight-length relationships listed in Carlander for muskellunge, northern pike, and chain pickerel by comparing graphs of the weight vs. length equations with other data listed and with standard weight curves published by independent sources. A number of discrepancies are identified through this analysis and new weight-length relationships are produced from listed data.