FISHERY, BIOLOGY AND POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NARROW BARRED SPANISH MACKEREL SCOMBEROMORUS COMMERSON EXPLOITED IN INDIA

The king seer also known as the narrow barred spanish mackerel, Scomberomoruscommerson is an important and most sought after scombroid included under seerfishes. Exploitation is mainly by hooks and lines and to a lesser extent by gillnets and seines. The annual catch of S.commerson ranged between 26,625 t and 40,309 t forming 0.8% to 1.9% of the total fish catch and 57.8 to 66.3 % of the total seerfish catch of the country during 2007-2011. The fishery of S.commerson was sustained by fishes with a fork length ranging from 32 to 126 cm and mean at 74 cm. Lr was at 12 cm and Lmax at 155 cm. The length at first maturity was estimated at 70 cm. Fishes with empty stomachs were prevalent and the prey mostly consisted of smaller fishes like sardines, mackerel and scads. The asymptotic length L∞ was estimated at 162 cm, annual K at 0.78. Natural mortality M was estimated at 1.61 and total mortality Z at 6.43.