Call for spatial management approach to control exploitation of juvenile sharks

Historically in the Indian coastal regions, elasmobranchs have been caught, traded, and consumed for centuries. In some regions (including non-coastal, high-altitude and interior regions), there is a high preference for certain elasmobranch species, products, and cuisines. While India has banned international trade of shark fins since 2015, and extended protection to ten species of sharks under the Wildlife (Protection) Act,1972, there is no restriction on the harvest, domestic trade, and consumption of elasmobranchs

Checklist of serranid and epinephelid fishes (Perciformes: Serranidae & Epinephelidae) of India

We provide an updated checklist of fishes of the families Serranidae and Epinephelidae reported or listed from India, along with photographs. A total of 120 fishes in this group are listed as occurring in India based on published literature, of which 25 require further confirmation and validation. We confirm here the presence of at least 95 species in 22 genera occurring in Indian marine waters. The majority of the species belong to the grouper genus Epinephelus (41%), followed by Pseudanthias (15%) and Cephalopholis (13%). Most species (92%) found in India have been assessed globally either as Data Deficient (DD) or Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Since information on groupers from India is limited, there is an urgent need to document the diversity, ecology, life history, population status, and fisheries status of this group of fishes from the country

Thalassas

Not AvailableThe Sundarbans Delta, one of India's Ramsar sites, is an ecologically important wetland that is home to a variety of endemic and threatened aquatic species, including mudskippers. However, there is a knowledge gap about their fundamental aspects, such as population dynamics, reproductive biology and other life-history characteristics, which hindered their conservation. Therefore, the demographics of the blue-spotted mudskipper Boleophthalmus boddarti (Pallas, 1770) were estimated. A total of 975 mudskipper individuals were collected during January 2018-December 2018 using a range of fishing gears [scoop net (0.5?2 cm mesh), bag net (5?15 cm mesh), fish traps (5 ? 5 cm mesh traps) and cast net (6?8 cm mesh)] with the help of artisanal fishers. Length?weight relationship analysis revealed negative allometric growth (b = 2.82) pattern for the study species. The estimated demographic parameters of study species are as follows: Asymptotic length; (L?) = 220 mm, growth coefficient (K) = 0.75 year?1, growth performance index (?) = 2.56 and potential longevity (tmax) = 4.0 years. The natural mortality rate (M = 1.58 year?1) of fish species was higher than the fishing mortality rate (F = 0.25 year?1). The current level of exploitation (E = 0.10) was much lower than the expected maximum rate of exploitation (Emax = 0.53), which indicates that the species is rationally exploited without any imminent danger of over-harvesting. The baseline data provided here likely to have implications for conservation and fisheries management of blue-spotted mudskipper

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Not AvailableNot AAndaman and Nicobar are a group of 572 Islands located in the Bay of Bengal which is endowed with rich marine biodiversity and coastal ecosystems. The estimated annual harvestable potential of marine fishery resources is 1.48 lakh tonnes whereas the present harvest stands closer to 40,000 tonnes. The critical need to bridge the gap between the potential and the harvest were emphasized over these years through harnessing the coastal and deep-sea fishery resources. However, a foremost issue that needs to be addressed remains the reliable estimation of fish landings through standard methodologies. Unorganized data collection and projection could lead to misrepresentation of the fishery resources which could affect the planning, conservation and management of resources. For proper data collection and reporting, the stakeholders at the field level must have adequate exposure and knowledge on the identification of marine fish landings. This handbook aims to assist the stakeholders engaged in fishery data collection and management with detailed information on the commercially important fisheries across the Islands. We strongly believe that this handbook could act as a ready reckoner on the identification of commercially landed marine fishes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islandsvailabl

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Not AvailableMacrobrachium indicum, a south Indian freshwater prawn described from Vellayani lake, Kerala is closely related to Koua river prawn, M. australe which in turn resembles M. ustulatum. Morphologically the three species pose difficulties in identification. A comparison of morphological characters of M. indicum, M. australe and M. ustulatum has been made in the paper. The COI sequence data for the species has been generated and made comparison with the existing COI barcode sequences for M. australe and showed clear difference between the species, thereby established the taxonomic validity of the species. Alignment of the present study sequences with reported sequences of M. australe revealed homologous region of 434 bp. Out of 434 nucleotides, the number of conserved and variable nucleotides were 313 and 121, respectively. Based on the P value (0.002) of Mann-Whitney U test, it was observed that the GC content at codon third base position between M. indicum and M. australe is significantly different. Because of the complexity of the species group a type material is highly necessary for confirmation in future studies and since holotype is irrecoverably lost, a neotype has been selected from the present collection and deposited in the CMFRI Museum at Kochi, Kerala with accession number: ED.2.2.1.8.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableMacrobrachium indicum, a south Indian freshwater prawn described from Vellayani lake, Kerala is closely related to Koua river prawn, M. australe which in turn resembles M. ustulatum. Morphologically the three species pose difficulties in identification. A comparison of morphological characters of M. indicum, M. australe and M. ustulatum has been made in the paper. The COI sequence data for the species has been generated and made comparison with the existing COI barcode sequences for M. australe and showed clear difference between the species, thereby established the taxonomic validity of the species. Alignment of the present study sequences with reported sequences of M. australe revealed homologous region of 434 bp. Out of 434 nucleotides, the number of conserved and variable nucleotides were 313 and 121, respectively. Based on the P value (0.002) of Mann-Whitney U test, it was observed that the GC content at codon third base position between M. indicum and M. australe is significantly different. Because of the complexity of the species group a type material is highly necessary for confirmation in future studies and since holotype is irrecoverably lost, a neotype has been selected from the present collection and deposited in the CMFRI Museum at Kochi, Kerala with accession number: ED.2.2.1.8.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableThe indigo barb Pethia setnai is a threatened small cyprinid endemic to the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot of India. In this study, the length–weight relationship and length–frequency-based population dynamics of this species, which are important prerequisites for effective fisheries management, were investigated for the first time based on specimens collected from the Mhadei River in the northern part of the Western Ghats. Estimated von Bertalanffy growth parameters were as follows: theoretical maximum length, L∞, 70.88 mm; growth coefficient, k, 1.50 year-1; and theoretical age at length 0, t0, –0.016 years. Natural mortality of P. setnai was higher than fishing mortality, and the present exploitation level (0.37) was less than 60% of the predicted maximum exploitation, suggesting that the species is not exploited to a level that is detrimental to the local population.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableMacrobrachium indicum, a south Indian freshwater prawn described from Vellayani lake, Kerala is closely related to Koua river prawn, M. australe which in turn resembles M. ustulatum. Morphologically the three species pose difficulties in identification. A comparison of morphological characters of M. indicum, M. australe and M. ustulatum has been made in the paper. The COI sequence data for the species has been generated and made comparison with the existing COI barcode sequences for M. australe and showed clear difference between the species, thereby established the taxonomic validity of the species. Alignment of the present study sequences with reported sequences of M. australe revealed homologous region of 434 bp. Out of 434 nucleotides, the number of conserved and variable nucleotides were 313 and 121, respectively. Based on the P value (0.002) of Mann-Whitney U test, it was observed that the GC content at codon third base position between M. indicum and M. australe is significantly different. Because of the complexity of the species group a type material is highly necessary for confirmation in future studies and since holotype is irrecoverably lost, a neotype has been selected from the present collection and deposited in the CMFRI Museum at Kochi, Kerala with accession number: ED.2.2.1.8.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableLength–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.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableIn the context of increasing fuel prices in fishing operations, low impact fuel efficient (LIFE) fishing practices such as gillnetting assume significance globally for sustainable development of fisheries. Satpati, which is well known for the dominance of mechanised gillnet fishing is an important marine fishing zone of Maharashtra along the north west coast of India. Considering the relevance of fuel efficient fishing methods, the present study focuses on highlighting the importance of gillnet fishing and to document the several changes that have taken place in the fish catch composition and fishing operations in the gillnet fishery at Satpati during the last few decades. The catch data were collected by fortnightly sampling from the single-day (lobster gillnetting) and multiday (pomfret and seer fish gillnetting) gillnet fishing. Specifications of crafts were recorded in the pre-scheduled questionnaire and by physically sampling the units. The study analysed the catch composition of all the three representative units that revealed a change in the trend of species composition over the years. The contribution of pomfrets to the total marine fish landings of Satpati had reduced from 30% in 1987 to 20% in 2015. This can be mainly attributed to the usage of smaller mesh size and increase in juvenile catch of pomfret over the past few years. In this regard, results of the present study with regard to assessment of the present scenario of the mechanised gillnetter fleet at Satpati would be useful to decision makers for imposing fishing fleet restrictions.Not Availabl