Stock characterization of Greater Lizardfish, Saurida tumbil (Bloch, 1795) along the west coast of India using morphological and molecular markers

The Greater Lizardfish, Saurida tumbil, forms a significant fishery in the demersal trawls along the west coast of India. But, the information regarding the stock structure of this species is scarce. In the present study, the morphology of fish, otolith shape, meristic traits and mt-DNA D-loop region were used to delineate the stocks collected from the west coast of India. Samples were collected between October to November 2018 from three major fish landing centres namely Mumbai, Mormugao and Kochi. Truss network analysis and otolith shape indices revealed the morphological divergence for body and otolith shape among the sampling regions. However, meristic traits and D-loop sequences of mitochondrial DNA could not show variation among the stocks, suggesting the existence of a single panmictic population of S. tumbil. The results of the present study are useful to formulate the stock-specific management measures for S. tumbil along the west coast of India.