A Linear Model Approach to Backcalculation of Fish Length

A common problem in fishery management is to infer the growth history of a population of fish from a single sample of fish. On each fish, one can measure its length at capture, age, and yearly increments between concentric annual rings in a scale. Linear models for growth from the scale increments are proposed. A method of inferring changes in length from the available data is then discussed. Results are illustrated by an example.