Fishery, population dynamics and stock structure of frigate tuna Auxis thazard (Lacepede, 1800) exploited from Indian waters

摘要

Auxis thazard, commonly known as frigate tunaudrepresents an important group of coastal tuna speciesudoccurring in the Indian waters. The species is landed alludalong the Indian coastline and the major landing is alongudthe south-west coast with Kerala contributing the most. Theudspecies is exploited by a variety of gears viz., drift gill nets,udshore seines, ring seines and hooks and lines. Though thereudis recent information on the fishery and the exploitationudstatus of Auxis thazard from Tuticorin (Kasim, 2002;udAbdussamad et al., 2005) and Veraval (Ghosh et al., 2010),udstudies on the catch, population characteristics and stockudestimates covering the entire coasts of India are lackingudafter the work of Silas et al. (1985) and James et al. (1993).udThese studies date back to two decades, after which thereudhas been a change in the fishing pattern of coastal tunasudthroughout the country. Therefore, the present study wasudundertaken to provide an insight into the fishery, populationuddynamics and stock structure of A. thazard exploited fromudIndian waters