Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India

Growth and maturity of Indian oil sardine Sardinella longiceps  (Valenciennes, 1847) along southwest coast of India

Volume 58 Issue 1

Preetha G. Nair, Shoji Joseph, V. Kripa, R. Remya and V. N. Pillai

10.6024/jmbai.2016.58.1.1899-07

Abstract

Growth studies are important to determine the total recruitment of fish with respect to time while information on age and length at first maturity are essential to assess the spawning stock. The present communication deals with growth, maturity and mortality parameters of Indian oil sardine Sardinella longiceps from southwest coast of India. Length at first maturity of oil sardine was found to be 15.7 and 15.2 cm for male and female, respectively. Comparison of length at first maturity of oil sardine with earlier studies showed only minor variations. The growth parameters L∞, K, and age at zero length (t0) were calculated as 19.8 cm, 1.14 yr-1 and -0.0464 respectively. From the VBG equation, the length attained at the end of I, II and III year is estimated as 13.79, 17.87 and 18.9 cm respectively. Two peaks of recruitment to the fishery were observed. The values of total mortality (Z), natural mortality (M) and fishing mortality (F) estimated are 4.33, 2.7 and 1.6 respectively. The exploitation rate was found to be 0.37.

Keywords

Oil sardine growth, length infinity, length at first maturity, mortality parameter.

Date : 30-06-2016