Age class structure
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Age class structure, in fisheries and wildlife management, is a part of population assessment. Age can be determined by fish scales, examination of teeth in many species, and with many methods both lethal and non-lethal.
[edit] Analyzing fisheries age class structure
An age class structure with gaps in it, for instance a regular bell curve for the population of 1-5 year-old fish, excepting a very low population for the 3-year-olds, implies a bad spawning year 3 years ago in that species.
Often fish in younger age class structures have very low numbers because they simply went through the sampling nets, and may in fact have a very healthy population.
