Spatial structure and distribution of ribbonfish Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 along the eastern Arabian Sea

Abstract

Ribbonfish Trichiurus lepturus is one of the most important pelagic fish resources in India.The west coast of India (WCI) is considered to be the major region where the species isabundant and forms a sizeable fishery. Determining the spatio-temporal abundance of fishis a key requirement for sustainable resource harvest. This paper illustrates the spatialstructure and distribution of ribbonfish along the WCI using the geostatistical technique,semi-variogram modelling. The spatio-temporal distribution map was generated by kriginginterpolation using the global neighbourhood in the study area. The results show that theareas of higher abundance of ribbonfish shifted between seasons, abundance along thenorthern region was high during the post-monsoon, while later shifting southward up to17°N, peaking between 18°N and 19°N. Furthermore, summertime peak abundance tendedto be more coastal in the Mumbai region. Ribbonfish abundance was relatively lower alongthe southern region i.e., below 15°N year-round. This finding provides additional informationto fishery managers and policymakers which will help improve the sustainability of fisheriescoupled with traditional fisheries management measures Keywords:Arabian Sea, GIS, Geo-statistics, Species distributionmodelling, Spatiotemporal management