Record of the largest big eye hound shark Iago omanensis (Norman, 1939) from Gujarat, North West Coast of India

A female specimen of big eye hound sharkIago omanensis measuring 66 cm was landed at Mangrol fishing harbor on 17th September 2013. The specimen was collected along with 13 others of the same species. I. omanensis was not recorded earlier from Gujarat

Occurrence of a serranid fish, Sacura boulengeri (Heemstra, 1973) at Veraval, Gujarat

On 28th October, 2013, a single specimen of Sacura boulengeri (locally known as ‘Vekhli’) belonging to the family Serranidae was collected from Veraval landing centre. The family serranidae, comprises of three subfamily Serraninae, Epinephelinae and Anthiinae. Fishes belonging to Anthiine are beautifully colored that inhabit coral and deep-reef habitats in tropical and warm temperate seas, and some of these species are taxonomically confusing. Many Anthiine fishes are very few in collection because of their rarit

Occurrence of pelagic thresher shark, Alopias pelagicus Nakamura, 1935 from Porbandar, Gujarat

The red frog crab otherwise called spanner crab is a coastal water species and single representative of genus Ranina under family Raninidea. They prefer to inhabit in bare sandy areas of intertidal and coastal waters of more than 100m depth. Distribution of this crab is confined to tropical and sub topical coastal waters of Indian and Pacific oceans, from the coast of South Africa to Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef. Occurrence of this species is very sparse in Indian waters and has been recorded once in Gulf of Mannar (Kasinathan et al., 2007)

આપણી શાર્ક બચાવો (Gujarati version of Save Our Sharks)

Save Our Sharks આપણી શાર્ક બચાવ

Reproductive biology, diet and feeding pattern of longtail tuna Thunnus tonggol (Bleeker, 1851) in the north-eastern Arabian Sea off Gujarat, India

Longtail tuna Thunnus tonggol (Bleeker, 1851) is the major tuna resource in the neritic realms of the northern Arabian Sea and forms considerable fishery in the coastal nations in the region. Gujarat, on the north-west coast is the major province landing longtail tuna in India. The paper attempts to add to the hitherto sparse knowledge base on biology of the longtail tuna fished along the north-west coast of India, through a study spanning from 2011 to 2015. Reproductive biology, spawning, food and feeding dynamisms of the species were investigated. Sex ratio of the species was estimated as 1:2.1 and depicted an increase in male preponderance as the size increased. The fish attains maturity at 607 mm and it spawns during summer months starting from May. The fish is typically a non-selective feeder and over 22 taxa comprising of fishes, cephalopods and crustaceans formed the diet at varying rates over the year. Variation in feeding intensity at different reproductive stages is discussed besides the constraint posed by the large presence of unidentifiable, partially digested gut content

Egg case of Arabian carpet shark, Chiloscyllium arabicum from Gujarat

It is common in the waters off Gujarat. The shark which is a bottom dwelling species predominantly inhabits coral reefs, lagoons, rocky shores and mangrove estuaries, between depths of 3-100 m on the bottom. It has been reported that the species grows up to 70 cm and matures between 45- 54 c

Note on an abnormal specimen of golden snapper

Morphological deformities or abnormalities arewell documented in many fishes from several partsof the world, including Indian waters. Severalreasons such as genetic aberrations, pollution,environmental stress, accidental injury during thegrowing period of the fish etc. have been attributedto the presence of abnormalities in fishes

Feeding habits of milk shark, Rhizoprionodon acutus (Ruppell, 1837) in the Gujarat coastal waters of north-eastern Arabian Sea

The feeding habit of milk shark Rhizoprionodon acutus was investigated in 684 specimens collected along Gujarat coast (India) of north-eastern Arabian Sea from January 2013 to December 2014. The length range of females was 32–89.6 cm and males 33.5–89 cm. The shark foraged on diversified prey items which were pooled into four distinct groups i.e., teleosts, crustaceans, mollusks and annelids. Teleosts (Dietary coefficient, %QI = 83.05 and index of relative importance, %IRI = 78.40) were found to be the preferred food items followed by crustaceans (%QI = 16.21; %IRI = 19.78), which formed the secondary food item group. Mollusks (%QI = 0.74; %IRI = 1.69) and annelids (%QI = 0.01; %IRI = 0.14) constituted the accidental or accessory food items. The species, though is a pelagic predator, probably performs vertical movements in search of prey items. The shark also showed some sorts of preference and selectivity for clupeids, engraulids and carangids. Females though showed significantly lower index of relative fullness (IRF) (P ≤ 0.5) and comparatively lower vacuity index and lower mean number of preys per stomach compared to the males, the preference for prey items was not found to be significantly different between the females and males. Juveniles were found to have significantly higher IRF (P ≤ 0.5) and comparatively higher vacuity index than that of the adults, whereas the mean preys per stomach was found to be lower than that of the adults. Moreover, the prey preference was also significantly different between the juveniles and adults. The study provides necessary baseline information about the feeding habits of the shark in the region which will be helpful in understanding the trophodynamics of the species under the influence of overfishing and climate change

गुजरात के सागर तट की समुद्री शैवाल विविधता

गुजरात के सागर तट की समुद्री शैवाल विविधत

Population dynamics and stock assessment of spadenose shark Scoliodon laticaudus Muller and Henle 1839 along Gujarat coast of India

423-433Stock assessment of Scoliodon laticaudus Muller and Henle, 1839 was made along with analysis of its few biological characteristics from its commercial landings during 2012-2016 from Gujarat waters of India to understand the population dynamics and stock status of the species. The average annual landing of the species was 5442 t, which constituted about 67% of the total shark landings at Gujarat coast. L∞, K and t0 were estimated as 75.53 cm and 0.54/yr, and -0.4 yr, respectively. Total mortality rate, fishing mortality rate and natural mortality rate were estimated as 1.95 yr-1, 1.04 yr-1 and 0.91 yr-1, respectively. The length at capture (Lc50) and length at maturity (Lm50) were 39.74 cm and 35.79 cm, respectively, which indicate that most of the sharks are exploited after attaining the sexual maturity. Length-weight relationship showed that the growth was isometric. The species was a continuous breeder and showed peak recruitment during September. The current exploitation ratio (Ecur) was found to be 0.53, which is lower than E0.1 estimated for the species using Beverton and Holt yield per recruit analysis. Thompson and Bell prediction model showed that maximum sustainable yield for S. laticaudus could be obtained by increasing fishing effort by almost 2.4 times higher than the present level which would deplete the spawning stock biomass (SSB) to 20%. Maximum economic yield could be obtained by increasing the fishing effort by 1.8 times which would also decrease the SSB, but to a comparatively safer 26.5% level. Considering 30% SSB as a precautionary management reference point, the effort could be increased by 50% exclusively for the sharks to increase the yield and revenue from fishery while maintain SSB at a safer 30% level