Length-weight relationships for 24 selected fish species from a non-tidal lagoon of the southern Adriatic Sea (Italy)

<>1 - Length-weight relationships (LWR) were estimated for 24 selected fish species in a small non-tidal lagoon located on the Italian coast of the southern Adriatic Sea (central Mediterranean Sea)2 - Samples were collected bi-weekly from June 2007 to May 2008 with fyke nets and LWR parameters were obtained by ordinary least square regression over log10-log10 transformed data3 - In terms of taxonomic richness, the assemblage was dominated by the family Sparidae (8 species), followed by Mugilidae (4), Gobiidae (3) and Mullidae (2). Seven families were represented by only one species4 - The values of the exponent b ranged from 2.891 for Sciaena umbra to 3.313 for Diplodus sargus sargus, with a mean value of 3.132. All the relationships were highly significant. Length-length equations for converting between length measurements (standard length (SL) to total length (TL))were also computed5 - To the authors’ best knowledge, this study reports the first reference for LWR of two gobid species in the Adriatic Sea