Length in assessing status of freshwater fish populations: A review.

This article focuses on the use of length-based metrics for assessing the status of freshwater fish populations as a cost-effective and practical approach amid challenges in monitoring numerous and diverse inland waters. It reviews the historical development, measurement methods, potential biases, and analytical techniques related to fish length data, emphasizing that length measurements can serve as proxies for ecological and population dynamics attributes critical to fishery management. The article discusses various length metrics and indices, including frequency distributions, single-value, and compound-value metrics, illustrating their application with empirical and simulated data. While acknowledging limitations such as sampling biases and assumptions of population stability, the review advocates for length-based assessments as an initial screening tool to guide management decisions and calls for further research to refine their accuracy, integration with other data types, and adaptation beyond traditional yield-focused paradigms.