Biological Aspects of Swordfish, Xiphias gladius Linnaeus, 1758, Caught During Tuna Longline Survey in the Indian Seas

Sijo P. Varghese; K. Vijayakumaran; A. Anrose; Vaibhav D. Mhatre

Biological Aspects of Swordfish, Xiphias gladius Linnaeus, 1758, Caught During Tuna Longline Survey in the Indian Seas

Year 2013, Volume: 13 Issue: 3, - , 01.06.2013

Sijo P. Varghese K. Vijayakumaran A. Anrose Vaibhav D. Mhatre

Abstract

Distribution, abundance and biology of swordfish, Xiphias gladius, of the Indian seas were investigated by analyzing the data gathered during tuna longline surveys conducted by the Fishery Survey of India (FSI). Study undertaken during the period from 2004 to 2010 revealed swordfish Catch Per Unit Effort of 0.02 numbers in 100 hooks from the Arabian Sea; 0.01 from Bay of Bengal and 0.02 form the Andaman and Nicobar waters. About 16% of the specimens caught were juveniles and the sex ratio of smaller fishes was in favour of males, whereas, larger specimens were mostly females. Length-weight relationship established indicated slightly positive allometric growth of the species and length based models revealed difference in growth between sexes. The growth parameters estimated for females were: asymptotic length (L∞) = 311.11 cm, growth coefficient (K) = 0.17/yr and age at zero length (t0) = -0.53 yr, whereas, the growth parameters estimated for males were: L∞ = 243.79 cm, K = 0.22/yr and t0 = -0.37 yr. Diet was dominated by finfishes and cephalopods, while crustaceans were recorded rarely. Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis was the dominant prey species, followed by Paralepis sp. Spawning area was identified in the Lakshadweep waters from where mature females with hydrated oocytes were caught during December to April. Size at 50% maturity for females was estimated at 164.03 cm, which is reached at about four years of age. Mean batch fecundity was 4.5 million, while the relative fecundity was 37.5 hydrated oocytes per gram of body weight and the diameters of mature oocytes were in the range of 0.9-1.6 mm. Our results provide preliminary information on the abundance, growth and biology of this species in the Indian seas which should be useful to fishery managers.

Keywords

Swordfish, longline bycatch, growth parameters, stomach contents, fecundity, Indian Ocean

References

310 0.124 -169 Pooled Japan Yabe et al., 1959 282 0.293 0.1085 F Chile Montiel., 1996 250 0.322 -0.7545 M Chile Montiel., 1996 321 0.14 -3 Pooled Central Pacific Uchiyama et al., 1998 300.66 0.04 -0.75 F Taiwan Sun et al., 2002 205 0.086 -0.626 M Taiwan Sun et al., 2002 296 0.08 -7 F Australia Young & Drake, 2004 22 0.13 -3 M Australia Young & Drake, 2004 47 0.053 -46 F New Zealand Griggs et al., 2005 34 0.044 86 M New Zealand Griggs et al., 2005 221 0.07 −0.15 M Hawaii DeMartini, 2007 22 0.524 −41 F Hawaii DeMartini, 2007 2002 0.169 -181 M Indian Ocean Wang et al., 2010 2855 0.138 -998 F Indian Ocean Wang et al., 2010 311 0.17 -0.53 F Indian seas Present study 279 0.22 -0.37 M Indian seas Present study waters would forage at the surface by night but be inactive at depth by day. Diet breadth index
(Shannon-Weiner index, H’) indicated moderately wide spectrum of prey species of X. gladius in the Arabian Sea. High value (4.34) for trophic level calculated in our study established the status of X. gladius as an apex predator. In the Reunion waters, swordfish with the greatest gonadal index are caught durung October to March (Poisson and Taquet, 2000). Yabe et al. (1959) reported the catch of females with ripe ovaries from equatorial Indian Ocean in April. Our results show that, mature females having ripe ovaries with hydrated oocytes are appearing in the catch in
Lakshadweep waters during December to April. Jones (1958) and Jones and Kumaran (1964) reported collection of swordfish larvae from Laccadive
(Lakshadweep) waters during the months February and April. This indicates that the swordfishes spawn in the Lakshadweep waters during December – April. Spawning in the North Atlantic occurs throughout the year with a peak from April to September in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and off Florida (Taylor and Murphy, 1992). In the central north Pacific spawning occurs in spring and summer (March through to July), during June to September in the Mediterranean (De Metrio and Megalofonou, 1987;
Orsi Relini et al., 1999; Tserpes et al., 2008 Alıçlı et al., 2012), in spring (September to December) in the western south Pacific and all year round in equatorial
Pacific waters (Nakamura, 1985). Earlier reports suggest that swordfish spawn in warm, relatively close to coastal waters in the western parts of ocean basins (Taylor and Murphy, 1992; Arocha and Lee, 1995). Based on histological examination of ovaries, gonadal index and maximum oocyte size, Poisson and Fauvel (2009 a ) identified swordfish spawning site off
Reunion Island, which is reported to be the only spawning site for swordfish in the Indian Ocean (Poisson and Fauvel, 2009 a ). Spawning site identified in Lakshadweep waters in our study will be an addition to this already reported swordfish spawning site of Indian Ocean. Size at first maturity of female swordfish estimated in this study was 164.03 cm (LJFL). Our study reveals that the females of swordfish in the Indian seas become sexually mature at about 4 th year of their life. De la Serna et al. (1996) estimated that 50% of female swordfish in the Mediterranean Sea mature at 142 cm. The size at first maturity of female swordfish in southwestern Indian Ocean was 170.4 cm (Poisson and Fauvel 2009 a ). Wang et al. (2003) estimated the size at first maturity of female swordfish from Taiwanese waters as 168.2 cm. Taylor and Murphy (1992) estimated size at first maturity of 182 cm for female swordfish of the Straits of Florida.
Our estimation was comparable to the length at first maturity (144 cm, Eye Fork Length ~162.23 cm, LJFL) calculated by DeMartini et al. (2000) for female swordfish caught by the Hawaii-based pelagic longline fishery.
Average batch fecundity and relative fecundity of females hooked from the Lakshadweep waters was comparable with those reported from Reunion (Poisson and Fauvel, 2009 b
). Estimates of the number of eggs produced in earlier studies ranged from more than 1 million eggs for a 68 kg swordfish (Palko et al., 1981) to 29 million for a 272 kg swordfish (Wilson, 1984). In our study, a strong correlation between fecundity and LJFL of females were established. Poisson and Fauvel (2009 b ) also made similar observation. Diameters of mature oocytes observed in our study were in the range of 0.9-1.6 mm. Poisson and Fauvel (2009 a
) reported that the hydrated oocyte diameters of swordfish sampled from Reunion Island was in the range of 1200 and 1550 μm.
Recent survey by the FSI vessels reveal availability of swordfish in Indian high seas and adjoining areas, especially western Bay of Bengal and adjoining Indian Ocean areas in the east coast and Lakshadweep waters in the west coast of India indicating scope for developing swordfish fishery in these areas. However, the development and expansion of swordfish fishery must be done with caution, since several swordfish fisheries in other parts of the world has shown initial, rapid expansion, and then declined and even collapse in many areas, prompting concern over the species’ ability to support intensive harvesting (Ward and Elscot, 2000). The Scientific Committee of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), during its annual Meeting in 2011 reviewed the stock status of X. gladius in the Indian Ocean and concluded that the present level of swordfish exploitation from the Indian Ocean is below Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) of 30,000 t. However, the assessments made by IOTC Working Party on Billfish indicated that the catch rate data from the Indian Ocean suggest overfishing of swordfish in localised areas, especially in the southwest Indian Ocean (IOTC–SC14, 2011). Genetic studies revealed that X. gladius stock of Bay of Bengal is genetically different from the stock of south-west Indian Ocean (Lu et al., 2006). Bycacth in the targeted swordfish fishery especially that of sea turtles is another area of concern, which is to be addressed at the earliest. Further, the swordfish caught in longline in the Indian waters are prone to heavy depredation, mainly by the pelagic sharks (Varghese et al., 2008).
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