Population characteristics of the silverbelly Leiognathus bindus (Valenciennes) along West Bengal coast

Leiognathus bindus occurs 6-15 m above sea bottom during night time in areas of depths ranging from 21 to 35 m. There is good correlation between depth of occurrence and mean length of this species. The length-weight relationship in the sea off West Bengal can be described by the equation log W=-5.38217-1- 3.28637 log L. The selection length for the 22 mm cod end mesh size is 42 mm. It appears that L. bindus in the sea off West Bengal belongs to a virgin stock and the estimated value of Z at 1.02 can be taken as M for the species. The yield per recruit analysis shows that higher yield can be obtained at a cod end mesh size of 42 mm with a maximum F of 3.2