Stock assessment of oil sardine, Sardinello longiceps Val., off west coast of India

The oil sanline contributes nearly 15% of the total annual marine fish landings of the countly and forms the mostimportant pelagic fishery resource.A brief account of the fishery. biology and stock position of the oil sardinebased on the data collected from several centres along the west coast of India during 1984-88 is given. Thegmwth wen estimatedby employing theFLIhIV-1method and the values>btaind for i-and K were 221 rnm and 0.75 res~ectivelv. The instantaneous total moaalitv rate (Z) was estimated as 2.23 and the instantaneousnatural mo&ty rate (M) as 1.30. The maximum sustainable yikld (MSY) was estimated as 150000 tonnes against a mean biomass of 107 000 tonnes