Age and growth of Himantura bleekeri (Blyth) and fishery for rays off Tuticorin

Marichamy, R and Mohamad Kasim, H and Ameer Hamsa, K M S and Rajapackiam, S (1999) Age and growth of Himantura bleekeri (Blyth) and fishery for rays off Tuticorin. In: The Fourth Indian Fisheries Forum, Proceedings, 24-28 November, 1996, Kochi.

Preview

PDF 29.pdf Download (252kB)

Abstract

An estimated annual average total catch of 900.9 t of rays were landed at Tuticorin during 1991 -92 to 1995-96. The small mechanised trawlers landed 778.8 t at the catch rate of 24.2 kg/unit which constituted 3.3% of the total catch by trawlers and the bottom-set gillnets landed 122.1 t at the catch rate of 73.9 kg/unit which formed 69.7% of the total catch by bottom set gillnets. The abundance of rays in the trawling grounds increased from April to reach a peak in September and then fluctuated. Such a definite trend was not seen in the abundance of rays in the grounds of bottom set gillnets and in general the abundance of rays was good in almost all the months. As many as nine and odd spec ies sup ported thefishery an d in both the gears Hin~uriruru bleekeri was the dominant species recording 34.1 % in trawlnet and 34.5% in bottom-set gillnets and the second dominant species was H. aurrurk. The sex wise age and growth of H.hleekcri is studied from length frequency data collected from trawl and bottom-set gillnet landings. The growth of this species is described by the von Bertalanffy growth equation : lt = 1242 (1 - e-0.5612(t+0.0103)f)o r males and lt = 1303 (1 - e-0.505 (t+0.0155)) for females.

Actions (login required)

View Item