Fishery, systematics and stock dynamics of billfishes landed along the Indian coast

Surya, S and Rohit, Prathibha and Abdussamad, E M and Asha, T L and Santhosh, B and Nayak, B B and Jeena, N S and Mini, K G and Ghosh, Shubhadeep and Kingsly, H Jose and Azeez, P A and Chellappan, Anulekshmi and Karankumar, R and Ponni, J M and Angel, G and Anil, M K (2023) Fishery, systematics and stock dynamics of billfishes landed along the Indian coast. Indian Journal of Fisheries, 70 (3). pp. 1-13. ISSN 0970 - 6011

Text Indian Journal of Fisheries_2023_Surya S.pdf Download (1MB)

Abstract

Sailfishes, marlins, spearfishes and swordfishes commonly referred to as billfishes are highly migratory species, with a worldwide distribution in tropical and subtropical oceans. The landings of billfishes along the Indian coast registered an increasing trend with an estimated landing of 14,759 t in 2019. Kerala (41%) contributed the maximum followed by Tamil Nadu (28%), Andhra Pradesh (18%), Gujarat (8%) and Maharashtra (2%) to the total billfish landings during the last decade. Mechanised gillnetter cum hook and line was the major gear landing billfishes. The major species landed during 2012-2019 were Istiophorus platypterus (52.2%), Istiompax indica (21.1%), Makaira nigricans (7.3%), Xiphias gladius (17.2%) and Kajikia audax (2.3%). Four of these species could be easily distinguished by COI barcodes but, the striped marlin, K. audax showed high sequence similarity with K. albida and cannot be distinguished by barcodes alone. Control region (889 bp) provided a better phylogenetic signal, consistent with that of the whole mitochondrial genome topology. The stock status plots of billfishes depicted that, all the species were in the developing and exploited phase. Growth, mortality and exploitation rates estimated for four billfishes indicated that the present fishing rates and biomass levels are at safe levels and there is considerable scope for enhancing their fishery.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	CO1 barcodes; Exploitation rate; Large pelagics; Life history; Stock status plots
Subjects:	Marine Fisheries > Population Dynamics Demersal Fishes > Bill fishes Marine Fisheries > Stock Assessment
Divisions:	CMFRI-Mangalore CMFRI-Mumbai CMFRI-Veraval CMFRI-Visakhapatnam CMFRI-Vizhinjam
Depositing User:	Arun Surendran
Date Deposited:	07 Nov 2023 11:59
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 11:59
URI:	http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/id/eprint/17611

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