ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the metrics of size structure are important and common tools used by fisheries scientists. Size structure analyses require length measurements for individual fish. The size structure of a population of fish is a synthetic response to other important ecological, population, and community factors. The size structure of a fish population at any point in time can be considered a snapshot that reflects the interactions of the dynamic rates of recruitment, growth, and mortality. A length frequency shows the number of fish in all length intervals that cover the range of observed lengths. A length frequency table contains the number of fish in each length interval. A histogram shows the frequency of individuals in each length interval. A length frequency may be presented as an empirical cumulative distribution function, which is the proportion of fish that are less than each observed length.
