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Demographics of Blue-spotted Mudskipper, Boleophthalmus boddarti (Pallas, 1770) from Mudflats of Sundarbans, India

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Abstract

The Sundarbans Delta, one of India's Ramsar sites, is an ecologically important wetland that is home to a variety of endemic and threatened aquatic species, including mudskippers. However, there is a knowledge gap about their fundamental aspects, such as population dynamics, reproductive biology and other life-history characteristics, which hindered their conservation. Therefore, the demographics of the blue-spotted mudskipper Boleophthalmus boddarti (Pallas, 1770) were estimated. A total of 975 mudskipper individuals were collected during January 2018-December 2018 using a range of fishing gears [scoop net (0.5–2 cm mesh), bag net (5–15 cm mesh), fish traps (5 × 5 cm mesh traps) and cast net (6–8 cm mesh)] with the help of artisanal fishers. Length–weight relationship analysis revealed negative allometric growth (b = 2.82) pattern for the study species. The estimated demographic parameters of study species are as follows: Asymptotic length; (L∞) = 220 mm, growth coefficient (K) = 0.75 year−1, growth performance index (Ø) = 2.56 and potential longevity (tmax) = 4.0 years. The natural mortality rate (M = 1.58 year−1) of fish species was higher than the fishing mortality rate (F = 0.25 year−1). The current level of exploitation (E = 0.10) was much lower than the expected maximum rate of exploitation (Emax = 0.53), which indicates that the species is rationally exploited without any imminent danger of over-harvesting. The baseline data provided here likely to have implications for conservation and fisheries management of blue-spotted mudskipper.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Director and Dean, CAS in Marine Biology, Authorities of Annamalai University and Maharashtra College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai for providing the necessary facility. The authors would like to thanks Dr. Gianluca Polgar for providing valuable suggestions and corrections on the data analysis part of this manuscript. We thank Manoj Pise for his help in figure preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, 608502, Parangipettai, India

    Gopalan Mahadevan & Perumal Murugesan

  2. Department of Zoology, Maharashtra College of Arts Science and Commerce, Maharashtra, 400008, Mumbai, India

    Sachin M. Gosavi

  3. ICAR Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Old Goa, 403402, Goa, India

    Giri Bhavan Sreekanth

  4. Fisheries Science Division, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, ICAR Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, 744101, Port Blair, India

    Yesudas Gladston

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  1. Gopalan Mahadevan
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Correspondence to Gopalan Mahadevan.

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Mahadevan, G., Gosavi, S.M., Sreekanth, G.B. et al. Demographics of Blue-spotted Mudskipper, Boleophthalmus boddarti (Pallas, 1770) from Mudflats of Sundarbans, India. Thalassas 37, 457–463 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-021-00320-5

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