w.age.female.2004 <- nls(WEIGHT ~ (alpha*TOTAL^beta)/454, start=list(alpha=1, beta=3), data=spottedseatrout2004.female.data) I am trying to fit above model to length-weight data of a fish species (spotted seatrout) by year (1999-2006). The convergence occurred for alll the years except 2002 and 2004. In these two year, R shows the error called 'singular gradient' in the model. Could anyone please help me to fix the error? I don't think there are any problems with my data because I can fit the same model to 2004 data without any problems using SAS. Thank you very much in advance. Hongsheng (Hank) Liao, Ph.D. Lab Manager Center for Quantitative Fisheries Ecology 800 West 46th Street Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia 23508 Phone:757.683.4571 Fax:757.683.5293