The fishery, biology and stock assessment of jew fish resources of India

Sciaenids are one of the major component of the demersal trawl The total catch of this resource during 1990-94 period was 1.50,142 t contributing 8.86% to the demersal catch of India. A number of species are found in different states of India. Of which biological and stock assessment studies were made on eleven important species. Crustaceans and fish appear to be the chief food in Juvenile and adult stage respectively. Most of the species have a protracted spawning season. Among all the species studied the largest asymptotic length was estimated for O.ruber from Tuticorin and the smallest for J. sina from Cochin. The highest Z of 7.59 was recorded for K. axillaris from Chennai and the lowest was for O. cuvierifrom Mumbai. The average exploitation rate (E) and the Lc/ Lao was 0.62 and 0.53 respectively. The present yield is 91.222 t and the MSY is 1.42,613 t for all the species taken together. The exploitation rate for almost all the stocks in the states appears to be more than the optimum leve