Course Description

This one-day course is for fisheries professionals and students interested in expanding their R skills to include analysis of age and growth data. Through a sequence of demonstrations and hands-on application exercises, participants will use R to construct appropriate metrics and graphics for comparing precision (APE, ACV) and bias (age agreement table, tests of symmetry, and age-bias plots) between two sets of estimated ages, construct and apply an age-length key to estimate ages of individual fish from their lengths, summarize mean length-at-age with a von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF), and statistically compare VBGF parameters between two or more groups of fish. Participants should be familiar with the fundamentals of R, including basic applications.

Pre-Course Preparation

• Install the latest version of R (v3.2.1) on your laptop. Directions for a first install are here. If you are using Windows and already have R installed, then an easy method to upgrade is described here.
• I prefer to use RStudio to interact with R (but RStudio is not required for this course). Directions to install and prepare RStudio are here (along with a quick introduction to the RStudio interface).
• Install several packages for use in the course. Directions for installing these packages are here if you plan to use RStudio and here if you plan to use R directly.
• Use the forthcoming Introduction to Fisheries Analysis with R book to (re)familiarize yourself with R basics (Chapters 1, 2, and 3) and the age and growth (Chapters 4, 5, and 12) topics of the course.
• Finally, from the course materials below, print all R Handouts(for taking notes on) and download all slides, handout scripts, and exercises to bring to the course.

Course Materials

1. Age Comparisons -- Precision and Bias

   • Slides // Handout // Script // Exercise

2. Age-Length Key -- Construction

   • Slides // Handout // Script // Exercise

3. Age-Length Key -- Application

   • Handout // Script

4. Growth -- Fit von Bertalanffy Growth Function

   • Slides // Handout // Script // Exercise

5. Growth -- Compare von Bertalanffy Growth Functions

   • Slides // Handout // Script

Follow-Up

• Please complete this survey regarding this short course.
• If you have any questions please feel free to contact me