Weight–length relationships for commercial fish species caught in Lake Hlan in Benin (West Africa)

Abstract

The present study describes the weight–length relationships (WLR) for 11 important commercial fish species caught in Lake Hlan in Benin. These species were collected by means of traditional fishing gear (traps, gill nets, bar mesh and hooks) from September 2004 to August 2005. A total of 1292 specimens were used to estimate the parameters of the relationship. The b values ranged between 2.706 in Heterotis niloticus and 4.038 in Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus, with a mean of 3.218±0.121. The correlation coefficients of the WLR regressions ranged from 0.94 to 1.00 and were all statistically significant. All relationships were highly significant.