Population dynamics of Strombus luhuanus, Linneaus 1758 from Oma coastal waters, Central Maluku, Eastern Indonesia

Abstract

Strombus luhuanus (strawberry conch), Linneaus 1758 is a marine mesogastropod belongs to Strombidae family. S. luhuanus is locally consumed by coastal communities in Maluku province to fulfill their protein needed, which will decreasing the stock in natural environment. The biological study including population dynamics needed to maintain S. luhuanus population. The research was conducted in Oma coastal water, Central Maluku, Eastern Indonesia during January to December 2019. The objectives of this research were to study the aspect of population dynamics of S. luhuanus such as asymptotic length (L∞), growth coeficient (K), natural mortality (Z), exploitation rate (E) and recruitment. A total of 1823 individual of S. luhuanus found in this study which consisted of 831 individual of males and 992 individual of females population. Shell size of S. luhuanus varied monthly. The result showed that in general, the male population showed five cohort, while the female showed six cohort. L∞ = 63.40 mm, K = 0.65 for females population; whilst for the males population, L∞ = 69.80 and K = 0.5. Total mortality (Z) for both population were Z = 3.03 and Z = 4.32, respectively. Exploitation rate of S. luhuanus in this study area showed that the population was overexploited (E = 0.64 and E = 0.79 for females and males population, respectively).