Summary
Length–weight relationship (LWR) was estimated for 12 elasmobranch species; five shark species, four species of rays and three species of guitar fishes from north‐eastern Arabian Sea, India. Five major landing centres of Maharashtra were selected; Satpati (Lat. 19°43′15″N, Long. 72°42′00″E), Naigaon (Lat. 19°19′32″N, Long. 72°48′54″E), Versova (Lat. 19°08′33″N, Long. 72°48′11″E), New ferry Wharf (Lat. 18°57′29″N Long. 72°51′01″E) and Sassoon dock (Lat. 18°54′42″N, Long. 72°49′33″E). Samples were collected fortnightly during August 2016 to October 2017 from various gears; drift gill nets (Hung length 114–143 m and #100–270 mm) off Satpati coast at 35–50 m depth, dol nets (length 50–65 m and cod end # 30–69 mm) in Naigaon at 38–50 m depth and trawl (length 33–72 m and cod end # 17–32 mm) in Versova, New ferry Wharf and Sassoon dock operated at 20–50 m depth. Multiday fishing was carried out with 2–3 fishing trips in a month, each trip with duration of 7–13 days. Soaking time of gill net and dol net varied from 4 to 8 hr while each trawl haul lasted for 3–4 hr. Length–weight/Disc‐width‐weight relationship showed good fit with r2 values varying from 0.818 to 0.999. In addition to information on LWR, new maximum size for three species of elasmobranchs is reported in this paper.
The blacklash scorpion fish, Pontinus nigerimum Eschmeyer, 1983 has been previously reported from the Western Indian Ocean. The two specimens were collected during surveys for fish composition in the long line, landed at South Andaman, on 12th September 2019. The species is characterized by 12 spiny and 10 soft dorsal-fin rays, three spiny and 5 soft (last fin ray bifurcated) anal-fin rays, 16 pectoral-fin rays, 1 spiny and 5 soft pelvic-fin rays, 17 gill rakers on first-gill arch and 3 pairs of chin pores, 12 pairs of papillae in the lateral line. Head length nearly half of the standard length (48.24-48.62 % of standard length), pectoral-fin large (22.94-27.24 % in SL) fan-like, with unbranched rays. The identity of the species was further validated using the partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. The present communication reports the first record of P. nigerimum from the Andaman waters, Eastern Indian Ocean.
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