Cephalopods have a good export demand and

is the second most sought after commodity next to

prawns by trawl operators. With the increased

exploitation and expansion of fishing grounds, new

records of cephalopods are being reported from

various places all along the Indian coast

Khan, Mohammad Zafar

Sundaram, Sujit

CMFRI Digital Repository

Record of cuttlefish, Sepia elliptica Hoyle, 1885 off Maharashtra coastSujit Sundaram and Mohammad Zafar KhanMumbai Research Centre of CMFRI, MumbaiCephalopods have a good export demand andis the second most sought after commodity next toprawns by trawl operators. With the increasedexploitation and expansion of fishing grounds, newrecords of cephalopods are being reported fromvarious places all along the Indian coast.A new entrant in to the cuttlefish fishery at NewFerry Wharf, Mumbai, Maharashtra is Sepia ellipticaHoyle, 1885 (Fig. 1). The species constituted thefishery during December-February with peak landingsin January. This species is commonly known as ‘ovalbone cuttlefish’ and locally all cuttlefishes are calledas ‘goti’. The mantle length of the species landed atNew Ferry Wharf ranged from 87 mm to 118 mmwith corresponding weight ranging from 82.6 to182.4 g. The depth of operation was about 30-40 mat 70-80 km north off Mumbai coast. The occurrenceof S. elliptica is reported for the first time fromMaharashtra waters.Some of the important distinguishing charactersof S. elliptica are as follows: The mantle is oval withthe dorsal anterior margin triangular. The arm lengthis sub-equal and the arm suckers are tetra serial.Club sucker-bearing surface flattened, with10-12 minute suckers in transverse rows. Swimmingkeel of the club extends well proximal to carpis. Thecuttlebone is oval and angular ‘V-shaped’ anteriorly,bluntly rounded posteriorly and the dorsal surface isgreyish white (Fig. 2 and 3).S. elliptica is often misidentified as Sepiaesculenta, world over. In S. esculenta, the inner coneledge is thick and directed anterior ventrally and italso has prominent lateral stripes on the dorsalsurface and they are commonly called as ‘goldencuttlefish’ due to its distinct colouration. They seemto get confused with Sepia aculeata and because ofFig. 1. Sepia elliptica Hoyle, 1885lobes pale yellowish, filament yellow (Fig. 2).Though the species is reported (FAO FisheriesSynopsis No. 125, Vol. 12) to have a widespreaddistribution in the Indo-Pacific from north-westernAustralia, the Indo-Malay Archipelago andAndaman Sea, it is being reported for the first timealong Andhra Pradesh coast. The total length ofspecimens collected ranged from 18.0 cm to 21.5cm and is known to attain a maximum length of 25cm (Fishbase). The collected specimens have beenpreserved in formalin and kept in the MarineMuseum of the Visakhapatnam Regional Centreof Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute.Fig. 2. Nemipterus zysron collected from VisakhapatnamFishing HarbourMarine Fisheries Information Service T&E Ser., No. 204, 201014Fig. 2. Dorsal view of cuttlebone of S. elliptica Fig. 3. Ventral view of cuttlebone of S. ellipticaFig. 4. Distinct markings on the arms of S. ellipticathis, they may not have been reported fromMaharashtra waters. S. elliptica  can be easilyidentified from S. aculeata  by its cuttlebone which isdistinctly shaped and also by the presence ofprominent markings on all the arms (Fig. 4).to a depth of 100 m. According to Meiyappan et al.(2000), this species is one of the neritic speciesoccurring in commercial catches and is recordedmainly from Veraval (Gujarat) and Cochin waterswhere they form significant part of the catch,especially in Gujarat. According to Meiyappan andMohamed (2003), S. elliptica exhibits bathymetricdistribution and they are caught along Cochin andVeraval coasts by trawling beyond 40 m depth. Thecatch of S. aculeata is comparatively very less inGujarat contributing only 0.7% towards thecephalopod fishery while S. elliptica contributes 27.5%and the period of abundance of this species isbetween October and January (Kasim, 1993). Theoverall contribution of this species to the cephalopodfishery from the west coast is 2% (Meiyappan andMohamed, 2003).Cuttlefish landings by trawlers in Mumbai consistof resources such as Sepia aculeata, Sepia pharaonisand Sepiella inermis. Generally in Mumbai waters,the abundance of cuttlefishes is during thepost-monsoon period (Kuber, 1987). The occurrenceof Sepia prashadi is highly seasonal in Mumbai watersoccurring only during September-December(Sujit Sundaram and Sarang, 2004), wherein theyreplace the species S. aculeata during this period(Sujit Sundaram et al., 2006). Similarly the speciesS. elliptica also seems to be seasonal and occursduring December-February. However they do notreplace S. aculeata. According to Nair et al. (1992),S. elliptica was found occurring in Cochin and Veravalwaters almost throughout the year.The maximum dorsal mantle recorded for thisspecies is 175 mm (Jereb et al., 2005). The largestS. elliptica is a tropical Indo-Pacific speciesextending from northern to western Australia,Exmouth Gulf, Queensland, Capricorn Island group,Gulf of Carpentaria and Vietnam and occur mainly incoastal waters at a depth range of 16 to 142 m(Jereb et al., 2005). According to Jereb et al. (2005),the occurrence of this species from Indian waters isdoubtful. However, Silas et al. (1985) has reportedthe occurrence of this species from Indian waters.Narasimham et al. (1993), Kasim (1993),Mohamed (1999) and Meiyappan et al. (2000) havealso mentioned the occurrence of this species fromCochin and Veraval waters. Sivasubramanian (1991)has reported this species from the Bay of Bengal upMarine Fisheries Information Service T&E Ser., No. 204, 2010 15By-catch of the gastropod Tibia spp. in gillnets operated alongGujarat coastR. Thangavelu, Shubhadeep Ghosh, Gulshad Mohammed, M. S. Zala and H. K. DhokiaVeraval Regional Centre of CMFRI, VeravalThe rocky coastal belt of Gujarat possesses anenormous potential resource of lobsters. Gillnets areregularly operated for lobster along the coast ofMangrol, Porbunder and Muldwarka. Gastropodssuch as Tibia maculata and Tibia curta occurred inlarge quantities as by-catch along with lobsters.Other gastropods such as Archipecten sp. andMurex sp. also make their occurrence in smallquantities.MangrolLobster fishing is being regularly conductedusing old gillnets in this area. The net is operatedat a distance of 2 to 3 km at a depth of 20 to 25 mand it is allowed to remain overnight and the nextday morning the fishermen usually collect the netwith all the fish, lobsters and the gastropods. Thegastropods living in the muddy or nearer to rockyarea also get entangled with the gillnet thus forminga fishery. On enquiry, it was told that thesegastropods are available in large numbers duringhigh tide after the post-monsoon season. The catchrate was also very high ranging from 15 to 25 kgper unit during September-December (Fig. 1) andit was considerably lower during January-Marchwith each unit bringing about 5 to 8 kg ofgastropods. The gastropods are mainly constitutedby T. maculata (Fig. 2) and T. curta (Fig. 3), formingabout 94% while the sun shell Archipecten sp. andMurex sp. form 3% and 2% respectively and theremaining 1% by other miscellaneous gastropods.Majority (71%) of the gastropods (Tibia sp.) weresizes recorded for males and females of S. ellipticacaught in trawlnet in Cochin area are 129 mm and119 mm respectively (Silas et al., 1985) and in Veravalwaters it is recorded as 149 mm (Kasim, 1993).Sivasubramanian (1991) has reported the maximummantle length as 130 mm from the Bay of Bengal.The maximum length recorded during the presentobservations from Mumbai waters was 118 mm.Silas et al. (1985) studied the biology of thisspecies from Cochin waters and Kasim (1993)reported on the age, growth and stock assessmentfrom Veraval waters. Sixteen specimens ofS. elliptica were analysed for gut contents of which14 were males and all of them had empty to tracestomachs and 2 specimens were females with‘half full’ stomach. This species seems to beextensively feeding on prawns. Silas et al. (1985)observed that penaeid prawns form the main itemof this species in Cochin waters and the other fooditems, which occur in the stomachs, are fishes,Acetes, crabs and stomatopods. In general,females were observed to be broader than malesand the overall dominance of males was observedin the catch from Mumbai. Similarly dominanceof males is reported in Cochin waters also(Silas et al., 1985). All the males examined were insecond stage of maturity and the females were inthird stage of maturity. Males and females of thisspecies of Cochin area attain sexual maturity at aminimum size of  75 mm, and all individuals of thetwo sexes mature when they reach a size of 115 mmand spawning females as well as males were recordedfrom October to December (Silas et al., 1985).Meiyappan et al. (2000) reported the size at 50%maturity in the west coast as 93 mm for males and96 mm for females.There is a definite migration pattern followed bycephalopods and hence further studies on thisspecies during this period would ensure their fisherypotential and trend. This being a new entrant to thecephalopod fishery off Mumbai waters, a closemonitoring of this resource is essential, as they seemto contribute substantially to the cephalopod fisheryin Veraval and Cochin waters.Marine Fisheries Information Service T&E Ser., No. 204, 201016

Record of cuttlefish, Sepia elliptica Hoyle, 1885 off Maharashtra coast

http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/6503/1/4._Suj.pdf

Record of cuttlefish, Sepia elliptica Hoyle, 1885 off Maharashtra coast

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