Studies on the growth and mortality of Indian River shad, Gudusia chapra (Hamilton, 1822) from Panchet reservoir, India.

The Indian river shad, Gudusia chapra (Hamilton, 1822), is a commercially important freshwater clupeid that contribute to the livelihood of subsistence and marginal fisheries in inland open waters of India and its adjacent countries. The present study was carried out on the growth and mortality of Indian River shad, Gudusia chapra (Hamilton, 1822) based on the commercial length-frequency data collected monthly during October 2014 to September 2015 of a large reservoir located in the border of Jharkhand and West Bengal. The ELEFAN-I (Electronic Length Frequency Analysis) module in FiSAT (FAO-ICLARM Stock Assessment Tools) was used for estimation of growth parameters (L∞, K). The total mortality was estimated following Pauly (ICLARM Fishbyte 2(1):9-13, Pauly 1983) whereas exploitation ratio and maximum sustainable yield were calculated following Gulland (1979). The asymptotic length (L∞) and growth coefficient (K) were estimated as 194 mm and 1.23 year-1, respectively. The species grows to 141.56 and 182.91 mm at the end of the 1st and 2nd years of life. The total natural and fishing mortalities were 6.63, 2.45 and 4.18 year-1 respectively. The value of growth performance index was 2.69. The exploitation ratio (E) was estimated as 0.63. As the exploitation ratio (E) is slightly beyond the optimum, there is likelihood of some threat of overexploitation. Though recruitment was continuous, major pulse was observed during April-May. The present investigation is a first report from Indian reservoir. The maximum sustainable yield of this species was estimated as 485.6 t against the present annual yield of 612.3 t. Avoiding overfishing and wise use of available resources are of prime importance for sustainable fishery management of the reservoir.