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Stock dynamics of the brushtooth lizardfish Saurida undosquamis (Richardson, 1848) from a tropical multispecies fishery in the southeastern Arabian Sea

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Relation http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/14086/
https://www.alr-journal.org/articles/alr/abs/2019/01/alr180110/alr180110.html
https://doi.org/10.1051/alr/2019006
 
Title Stock dynamics of the brushtooth lizardfish Saurida undosquamis
(Richardson, 1848) from a tropical multispecies fishery in the
southeastern Arabian Sea
 
Creator Najmudeen, T M
Seetha, P K
Zacharia, P U
 
Subject Marine Fishing
Analytical models
Population Dynamics
Lizard fishes
 
Description The brushtooth lizardfish Saurida undosquamis (Richardson, 1848) is a high trophic level
benthic predator and is one among the most exploited demersal finfish species from eastern Arabian Sea by
Indian trawlers. However, in recent years, the landings of many top predator fishes including S. undosquamis
showed a declining trend resulting in a steady decline in the mean trophic levels of the fishes caught
commercially in the region. We investigated the growth, mortality and stock dynamics of S. undosquamis
harvested by mechanised trawls in the southeastern Arabian Sea, using length-based methods for the data
collected during 2012–2016. Besides, Bayesian state-space implementation of the Schaefer model (BSM)
and catch-based MSY (CMSY) estimation were also made using the data for the period 1985–2016. Total
length of the fish ranged from 5.5 to 34.5 cm with average annual mean length of 22.0 cm during 2012–2016.
The growth parameters L∞ and K were 37.3 cm and 0.41 year�1, respectively. The natural, fishing and total
mortality coefficients were 0.92, 2.58 and 3.5, respectively and exploitation ratio was 0.82. The length at
first maturity was estimated at 21.4 cm for females. The mean size in the catch is lower than the optimum
length for exploitation. Fisheries reference points (MSY, Fmsy, Bmsy) as well as relative stock size (B/Bmsy)
and exploitation (F/Fmsy) estimated from catch data and broad priors for resilience (r), implies an
exploitation of 30% below Bmsy level. Results from the length-based Thompson and Bell prediction model
indicates that reducing the present level of fishing effort by 40% would lead to a harvest of the species at a
sustainable level. As “fishing down food web” is reported in recent years from eastern Arabian Sea, the
exploitation of top predators need to be maintained at sustainable levels to prevent ecosystem changes along
the region.
 
Date 2019
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format text
 
Language en
 
Identifier http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/14086/1/Aquatic%20Living%20Resources_2019_Najmudeen%20T%20M_Stock%20dynamics%20of%20the%20brushtooth%20lizardfish%20Saurida%20undosquamis.pdf
Najmudeen, T M and Seetha, P K and Zacharia, P U (2019) Stock dynamics of the brushtooth lizardfish Saurida undosquamis (Richardson, 1848) from a tropical multispecies fishery in the southeastern Arabian Sea. Aquatic Living Resources, 32 (9). pp. 1-10.