The Estimation of Biological Parameters for Culter alburnus in the Waterway Connecting the Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River

Abstract:

In the present study, monthly carapace length frequency data of Culter alburnus were collected from the set net fishery survey in the waterway connecting the Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River from March 2012 to February 2013. ELEFAN І and Shepherd’s methods in the software package FiSAT II were used to analyze the growth, mortality rates and recruitment pattern of an unexploited population of C. alburnus. The results showed that the length of C. alburnus population ranged from 93 to 645 mm, and that the relationship between body length (L, mm) and body weight (W, g) can be expressed as W=0.9×10-5L3.029(R2=0.975, n=317). The estimated parameter for von Bertalanffy growth equation was L∞=677.25 mm，K= 0.140, and t0 =−0.854. Total mortality (Z) was 1.514/a, natural mortality (M) was 0.173/a, and fishing mortality (F) was 1.341/a. The exploitation rate of C. alburnus was 0.886, suggesting resources of C. alburnus were on the state of overexploitation in the study area. The recruitment pattern with less efficiency from April to August suggested that fishing ban period should be adjusted in order to restore and conserve the populations of C. alburnus.