Stock assessment of the Indian scad, Decapterus russelli (Ruppell, 1830) from Mumbai waters

Present study consists the Growth, mortality and the stock assessment of Decapterus russelli . ‘L �’ was estimated as 277 mm and ‘K’ as 1.237/year. The t o estimated by VBGF plot was – 0.3443 year. Growth in length of D. russelli described following von Bertalanffy growth equation as, L t = 277[ 1-e -1.237{t-(-0.3443)} ]. Longevity was estimated to be 2.42 years. Total mortality rate (Z), natural mortality rate (M) and fishing mortality (F) were estimated to be 6.66, 2.1 and 4.56 respectively. In this study, Z/K was found to be 5.38 indicating that the stock of D. russelli is presently mortality dominated in Mumbai waters. Exploitation rate (U) was calculated as 0.6838 and the Exploitation ratio (F/Z) as 0.6847. Thompson and Bell longterm prediction analysis indicated that there is no decline in yield of D. russelli even if the fishing effort is doubled. Present level of fishing has no deleterious effect on the fishery of D. russelli