Preliminary study on growth and mortality of Escualosa thoracata (Valenciennes, 1847) from Mumbai waters

Abstract

Investigation on growth and mortality of Escualosa thoracata reported in the present literature is based on the length frequency data collected from April 2013 to March 2014. Asymptotic length (L∞), growth coefficient (K) and t0 were estimated as 119.6 mm, 1.85 year-1 and -0.000095 year respectively. VBGF plot indicated that the fish reaches 72.17 and 100.79 mm at the end of 6 and 12 months respectively. The phi- prime value was obtained as 2.423. Total, natural and fishing mortality coefficient was estimated as 7.809 year-1, 3.45 year-1 and 4.35 year-1 respectively. The exploitation rate (U) and exploitation ratio (E) were estimated as 0.556 and 0.557 yearr-1 respectively.