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Abstract:
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Fitting asymptotic growth curves to shark data presents opportunities and problems as compared with other fishes. At the small end of the size spectrum, accurate measurements of age at length are easy to take, but it may be difficult to obtain these samples. At the largest ages/lengths, ageing may carry high variance, and, because it is difficult to obtain information about these large animals, most predicted asymptotic sizes are projections based on data from smaller sharks. This research investigates the relationship between the distribution of the data over the range of observable lengths and the associated precision of the estimates. When the sample data omit regions of the possible length range, the effect is a loss of precision in parameter estimates. The effect is most pronounced when missing lengths are on the extremes of the length range.
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