Maturity and spawning habits of some sciaenids inoffshore waters at Visakhapatnam

Sciaenids form a commercially important group of fishes in the catches of both the powered and non-powered craft, along the Andhra and Orissa coasts. The important species entering the catches are Pseudosciaena aneus (Bloch). Pseudosciaena bleekeri (Day) and Johnius carutta (Bloch). The author has been studying the distribution, abundance and biology of these fishes off the Andhra and Orissa coasts. Preliminary results of the work on the spawning cycle of these fishes based on a study of ova diameter frequencies are presented here.