Spawning behaviour and fecundity of the indian mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier), at Mangalore

Abstract

The earliest reference to the fecundity of the Indian mackerel was by Devanesan and John (1940) who estimated the number of ripe eggs in the mackerel ovary as 94,000. Subsequent work was directed mostly towards finding out the spawning behaviour of this fish, by the study of the intra-ovarian eggs. Pradhan (1956) indicated the possibility of the Indian mackerel spawning the eggs in successive batches over a prolonged period, like its Atlantic counter-part Scomber scombrus (L). Pradhan and Palekar (1956) described the maturity stages I to VII, based on the external appearance of the ovary, its size relative to the abdominal cavity, and the range of ova-diameter readings. However, they have not given any ova-diameter frequency polygons.