Fishery, Biology, and Dynamics of Parapenaeopsis maxillipedo (Alcock, 1905) off the SE Coast of Tamil Nadu (India)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mohale, H.P.; Jawahar, P.; Jayakumar, N.; Swapnil, N.; Kadam, R.V.; Prakash, P.; Oli, G.A., and Ravikumar, T., 2024. Fishery, biology, and dynamics of Parapenaeopsis maxillipedo (Alcock, 1905) off the SE coast of Tamil Nadu (India). Journal of Coastal Research, 40(4), 779–791. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. The current study was carried out between September 2022 to September 2023 from SE coast of Tamil Nadu for Parapenaeopsis shrimp. This shrimp, estimated to rank third in shrimp production, landed as 2216, 2032, and 1704 kg from Thoothukudi, Mandapam, and Nagapattinam landing centers, respectively. The catch per unit effort was calculated to check the abundance of this species and ranged from 21.83 to 96.41 kg, averaging 46.33% in both years. The total length of males and females was observed in the range of 5.5 to 10.5 cm and 6.5 to 12.5 cm, respectively. Female shrimp attained first maturity at 6.5 cm, whereas male shrimp were 5.5 cm. The gonadosomatic index was calculated and found to be the highest (5.64–5.78) in March and September and the lowest in April and October for both years. The absolute fecundity for P. maxillipedo was recorded and ranged from 38,500 to 1,32,000 ova per female. The highest index of relative importance was observed in October and April for both male (57.04) and female (73.82) shrimp. To estimate von Bertalanffy's growth equation in P. maxillipedo, the asymptotic length and growth coefficient (K) growth parameters were combined for both sexes and analyzedas 13.55 cm and 1.5 y–1, respectively. The total mortality and natural mortality (M) were observed as 3.04 and 2.86 y–1, respectively. Hence, fishing mortality was 0.18 y–1, and the exploitation rate (E) was 0.06. The length at first catch per length (LC/L) and M/K values were calculated using the Y/R model as 0.52 and 1.2 for males and 0.48 and 1.3 for females, respectively. E was observed as 0.06, which was lower than the maximum E of 0.4, which showed that the P. maxillipedo fisheries along the SE coast of Tamil Nadu were at unexploited conditions.