BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS Size and growth rate differences of larval Baltic sprat Sprattus sprattus collected with bongo and MIK nets

Estimatingthedistribution,abundanceandsizeoflarvalandjuvenilefishesisanimpor-tant part of fisheries research. This is mostly because year-class strength is frequentlyestablished during early life stages of fishes (Cushing, 1990). Different types of netsare available for sampling larval and juvenile fishes. Since they have different openingand mesh sizes, and can be towed at different speeds, the characteristics of planktonicmaterial collected with regard to abundance, species composition and size distributiondiffer depending on the gear used for sampling (Clarke, 1983; Munk, 1988; Johnson& Morse, 1994; Mukhina & Smirnov, 1997; Urho, 1997; Oozeki, 2000; Overton R Hernandez