Biometric properties of the sand smelt Atherina boyeri Risso, 1810 from the Izmir Bay (Aegean Sea)

In this study was investigated some biometric properties of the sand smelt, Atherina boyeri Risso, 1810, population in Izmir Bay (Aegean Sea). Minimum and maximum total lengths of 596 sample collected from Izmir Bay between December 2002 and October 2003 were deter-mined as 43 and 97 mm, respectively. The total length (TL)-weight (W) relationship was com-puted as W=0.000003*L3.196 (r2=0.932, n=596). The length frequency and thirteen morphomet ric characters were examined for samples. As a result of regression analysis, individuals of sand smelt were shown positive allometric growth in the research area 3.196± [0.064 %95 C.I.]. Thirteen morphometric characters of samples were measured. These characteristics were distance between nose point and eyes (1), eye diameter (2), gill cover length (3), inter-orbital distance (4), head length (5), dorsal fin I-nose point distance (6), anal fin-nose point distance (7), dorsal fin II-nose point distance (8), standard length (9), dorsal fin length I (10), distance between dorsal fins (11), body height (12) and caudal peduncle height (13). As a result, differ ences of between morphometric characters were observed statistically significant by the regres sion analysis (p<0.05). Accordingly to the morphometric features, means of head length/total length and eye diameter/head lengt