Length–weight relationship of selected elasmobranch species from north-eastern Arabian Sea, India.

Abstract

Length–weight relationship (LWR) was estimated for 12 elasmobranch species; five shark species, four species of rays and three species of guitar fishes from north- eastern Arabian Sea, India. Five major landing centres of Maharashtra were selected; Satpati (Lat. 19°43′15′′N, Long. 72°42′00′′E), Naigaon (Lat. 19°19′32′′N, Long. 72°48′54′′E), Versova (Lat. 19°08′33′′N, Long. 72°48′11′′E), New ferry Wharf (Lat. 18°57′29′′N Long. 72°51′01′′E) and Sassoon dock (Lat. 18°54′42′′N, Long. 72°49′33′′E). Samples were collected fortnightly during August 2016 to October 2017 from various gears; drift gill nets (Hung length 114–143 m and #100–270 mm) off Satpati coast at 35–50 m depth, dol nets (length 50–65 m and cod end # 30–69 mm) in Naigaon at 38–50 m depth and trawl (length 33–72 m and cod end # 17–32 mm) in Versova, New ferry Wharf and Sassoon dock operated at 20–50 m depth. Multiday fishing was carried out with 2–3 fishing trips in a month, each trip with duration of 7–13 days. Soaking time of gill net and dol net varied from 4 to 8 hr while each trawl haul lasted for 3–4 hr. Length–weight/Disc-width-weight relation-ship showed good fit with r2 values varying from 0.818 to 0.999. In addition to infor-mation on LWR, new maximum size for three species of elasmobranchs is reported in this paper.