Fishery and population dynamics of the spider prawn, Nematopalaemon tenuipes Henderson along the Saurashtra coast

Nematopalaemon tenuipes Henderson forms about 20% of the non-penaeid catch by dol nets operating along the Saurashtra coast. The length-weight relationships were obtained with, a = 2.153x10(-5) and b = 2.699 for males and a = 1.905x10(-5) and b = 2.783 for females. The von Bertalanffy growth equation was derived as L(t) = 73 [1-e(-1.38(t+ 0.02))] for males and L(t) = 78.6 [1-e(-1.32(t+ 0.04))] for females. The lengths attained at the end of 0.5 to 1.5 year/s were estimated as 37.3, 55.1 and 64 mm for males and 40, 59.2 and 69.5 mm for females. The mortality coefficients Z, M and F were 6.31, 3.23, 3.08 and 5.97, 3.08, 2.89 for males and females respectively. The annual exploitation rate U was 0.49 for males and 0.48 for females. The MSY was estimated to be 1,678 t and 5,346 t for males and females respectively, and 7,024 t for the species in Saurashtra. With an average annual production of 5,600 t, the resource does not appear to be under threat of over fishing at present.