Morphometric relationships and non-parametric, length–frequency-based growth parameters and natural mortality for common marine forage fish in Florida waters (USA)

Abstract Life-history parameters are necessary in population and ecosystem analyses. But they are not always available, especially for species that, justifiably or not, are of low priority, such as the forage fish of Florida, USA. When these parameters are unavailable for analyses, they are often borrowed from species of other areas. To keep the borrowing of life-history parameters to a minimum for Florida forage fish, this study is devoted to developing the morphometric relationships, growth parameters, and natural mortality rates for forage fish species for which size data had been collected in inshore surveys that have been conducted during 1996–2017 by the Fishery Independent Monitoring program of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. The parameters developed can be used in single-species stock assessments and in marine ecosystem modeling.