Penaeid prawn fisheries of the northwest coast of India

The present account is based on commercial trawler operations in the Northwest coast of \nIndia between 17' and 21°N - 71° and 73% during 1978 - '85 covering an arw of approximately \n25,000 km2. Penaeid prawns accounted for 8290 tonnes per year on an avcragc constituting 28% \nof the trawl catch. A standing stock of 13,000 t of penaeid prawns has hccn estimated from this \narea based on, the swept area metho? which indicates scope for increasing the fishing effort. \nParapenaeopsis sblifera, Metapenaeus afinis, Solenocera crassicornis and M, monoceros were the \nmajor components. \nThe length-weight relatiollship of the major species has been worked out. No significant \ndifference in the mean size of the species caught over the years was noticcable. Females always \npredominated over males among all the species almost throughout the season. 'Ibe peak breeding \nperiod for most of the species was during August - November and March - April. However \npercentage of mature females was generally observed to be low in the population.