A new method for measuring maximum stomach or digestive tract volume of fish incorporates air injection at constant pressure with water displacement to measure directly the internal volume of a stomach or analogous structure. The method was tested with coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum), which has a true stomach, and northern squawfish, Ptychocheilus oregonensis(Richardson), which has a modified foregut as a functional analogue. Both species were collected during July-October 1987 from the Columbia River, U.S.A. Relationships between fish weight (= volume) and maximum volume of the digestive organ were best fitted for coho salmon by an allometric model and for northern squawfish by an exponential model. Least squares regression analysis of individual measurements showed less variability in the volume of coho salmon stomachs (R2= 0.85) than in the total digestive tracts (R2= 0.55) and foreguts (R2= 0.61) of northern squawfish, relative to fish size. Compared to previous methods, the new technique has the advantage of accurately measuring the internal volume of a wide range of digestive organ shapes and sizes.
