Biometric studies on spotted sardinella Amblygaster sirm (Walbaum, 1792) (Pisces: Clupeidae) occurring along Andaman coast, India

Abstract

All the morphometric variables of Amblyaster sirm show significant correlation between them except head lenght with showed correlation coefficient of less than 0.80 with all other morphometric variables. Liner regression between standard length and other morphometric variables showed R2 value of > 0.9 except for HL and BD were the values dropped below 0.75 Pairwise linear regression of log transformed morphometric varibales with log-standard length shows negative allometric growht for HL and positive allometric growth for body depth with standard length. Descriptive statistics for morphometric and meristic characters were found to be in agreement with previous work. Spearman rank correlation shows insignificant relation between meristic characters and standard length. L-W relationship for males and females were established as W=0.000007L3054 and W=0.000001L3370 respectively. Relative conditon factor (Kn) for female (mean=) were found to be higher than males (mean=) throughout the year with no major seasonal fluctuation.