Growth and Exploitation Level of Black Pomfret, Parastromateus niger (Bloch, 1795) off West Bengal Coast

摘要

Pomfrets form one of the commercially important fishery all along the Indian coast due to their soaring market price and good foreign exchange value. The black pomfret Parastromateus niger (Bloch, 1795) under the family carangidae with a trophic levelof 3.0 forms an important fishery in the Indo-West Pacific region (Froese & Pauly 2011). It is often associated with reef habitats but also found in brackish and marine waters. It contributes about 30 - 40% of the total pomfret production of West Bengal(Srinath & Pillai, 2006). It is harvested effectively by drift gill nets, trawls and dol nets operated by dugout canoes or plank built boats. An accurate estimation of population dynamics parameters is imperative to understand exploitation of fishery stocks and abundance (Seijo, 1986). The basic purpose of fish stock assessment is to provide advice on the optimum exploitation of aquatic living resources. In spite of the commercial and economic importance of the species, the research inputs on the aspects of its population dynamics and stock assessment in Indian waters are scanty (Khan et al, 1992) and no information is available from the coast of West Bengal. However, few studies have been carried out on the population dynamics of the species elsewhere (Herianti et al., 1986; Taghavi et al, 2005; Dadzie et al, 2007). The present study was therefore, envisaged to assess the growth, mortality and exploitation level of P. niger off the West Bengal coast of India.