Population characteristics of atropus atropos [bloch and schneider, 1801] from mangalore coast, India

The fishes of the family Carangidae, (Atropus atropos) commonly called as “Cleftbelly trevally” are distributed in the tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Indo-West Pacific region. The population parameters viz., growth, mortality, exploitation ratio and length at first capture were investigated to derive requisite information for their effective management. The von Bertalanffy growth equations were derived as Lt =26.25 [1-e –0.69 (t+0.2425)]. The annual total instantaneous mortality (Z), natural mortality (M) and fishing mortality (F) were assessed as 2.94, 2.34 and 0.6 respectively. The estimated exploitation ratio (E) and exploitation rate (U) were 0.20 and 0.193 respectively. The estimated probability of Length at capture (Lc) of fish, the length at which 25 percent of fish (L25) vulnerable for capture by the gear was 11.23 cm; length at which 50 percent of fish (L50) vulnerable for capture by the gear was 12.44 cm. Similarly for L 75 was at 13.66 cm.