Zusammenfassung: Age-classes in crayfish populations can be determined from size-frequency data provided 4 tents are adhered to only crayfish collected from areas of rock substrate are used; trapping are excluded; species do not have longevities exceeding about 4 yr; and most importantly, sample sizes are greater than about 200. Studies that have failed to follow these guidelines have met with limited success in dissecting mixed frequency distributions. Further, 3 validation procedures must be undertaken: temporal replication within molting events to measure the precision of both data collection and size-frequency analysis; corroboration with known-age crayfish from either field recaptures or laboratory molt increments; and concordance with independent analysis of the mean size at onset of sexual maturity. When these checks support the size-frequency results, population age composition and analyses of rates of growth or mortality can be considered reliable.

Zusammenfassung: Schaefer's model on the exploitation of a single species fish community obeying the logistic law of growth has been modified by adopting an alternative functional form for the harvest rate. The stability of the nontrivial steady state is discussed. The existence of a bionomic equilibrium is proved. The problem for optimal exploitation of the fishery is studied by using variational calculus. Some results are numerically computed to make a comparative study of Schaefer's model and the present one.