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Fishery Bulletin 92|4), 1994 



growth parameters such as <[>', co, and L x . In the case 

 of the CV, relative length at age seems to be the most 

 important variable and the growth parameter vari- 

 ables were not selected for the models with five or 

 less variables. Models with more than five indepen- 

 dent variables are not shown as there was little fur- 

 ther improvement in the amount of variation explained. 

 The influence of growth parameters can be seen in 

 three-dimensional smoothed plots of the SD against 

 relative length and L x (Fig. 1), the SD against rela- 



tive length and (J)' (Fig. 2), and the SD against rela- 

 tive length and co (Fig. 3). Magnitude of the variabil- 

 ity of mean length at age generally increases with 

 L„, <(>', and co. In contrast, no growth-parameter-re- 

 lated trends were found in plots involving CV. For 

 example, in the plot of CV against relative length 

 and K (Fig. 4), relative variability consistently de- 

 creased with size for all values of K. 



Coefficent of variation and variation in CV decreased 

 with increased relative length in all regressions for 



