Fishery and population characteristics of Indianmackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier) atKakinada

Indian mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta is exploited by trawls and gillnets along Kakinada coast. Its production increased from 67 t in 1988 ’99 to 3,493 t in 1997 ’98. Period of peak abundance and fishery was February-March while recruitment was high during December-January. Length weight relationship showed that females were slightly heavier than males of the same size. Growth parameters, L∞ and K were estimated as 286.3 mm and 1.89/year respectively. Natural mortality of the stock was 2.61. Total mortality varied between 4.69 and 9.29 and fishing mortality between 2.08 and 6.68. Stock varied during the period between 1,814 and 5,255 t and biomass between 268 and 902 t. Maximum sustainable yield is 2,239 t. Emax is 0.77, whereas exploitation rate varied between 0.44 and 0.72. These indicated that the resource is currently under moderate fishing pressure especially from trawls and has only marginal scope for further increase in production. Since further increase in effort by trawls would be detrimental for the resource it is recommended to reduce their effort marginally or to maintain at the present level, whereas effort by gillnets can be increased.