Maximum sustainable yield estimates of the Barramundi Lates calcarifer fishery from Northern Arabian Sea

摘要

Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) of Barramundi Lates calcarifer (Bloch, 1790) fishery of Pakistan are estimated based on catch and effort data from 1995-2009. Two computer software packages CEDA (catch effort data analysis) and ASPIC (a surplus production model incorporating covariates) were applied. Three surplus production models of Fox, Schaefer and Pell-Tomlinson with three error assumptions of normal, log-normal and gamma were used by applying CEDA and two surplus production models of Fox and Schaefer were used by applying ASPIC computer software package. In CEDA initial proportion (IP) was used ranging from 0.1-09. The obtained MSY results using IP 0.8 (because the initial catch was roughly 80% of the maximum catch) in normal, log-normal and gamma error assumptions for Fox, Schaefer and Pella-Tomlinson models were about 107-117t (+/- 8.131-15.260) t and estimated R-2 for three models with three error assumptions were about 0.61-0.67. The estimated MSY results of Fox and Schaefer models using ASPIC computer software package were 118t (+/- 10.856)t and 109t (+/- 10.384)t and estimated R2 for Fox and Schaefer models were 0.803 and 0.794 respectively. The estimated values of MSY are smaller than the recent catch which indicates that the fishery of L. calcarifer in Northern Arabian Sea is over-exploited.