Eco. Env. & Cons. 20 (4) : 2014; pp. (1549-1551) Copyright@ EM International ISSN 0971–765X Length frequency analysis of Indian mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1817) off Ratnagiri Coast, Maharashtra, India M. P. Bhendarkar* 1 , S.D. Naik 2, H.D. Joshi, S.S. Sonuwane and T. Hussain College of Fisheries, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra 415 629, India 1 Fisheries Resource Management (Department of Fisheries Biology), College of Fisheries, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India 2 Department of Fisheries Biology, College of Fisheries, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India (Received 5 February, 2014; accepted 6 March, 2014) ABSTRACT A study on length frequency distribution of Rastrelliger kanagurta along Ratnagiri coast, Maharashtra showed that, random samples of fish collected from the commercial catches were ranged from 4.6 to 29.9 cm of total length mainly clustering between size groups 10-12 cm, 13-15 cm, 16-18 cm, 19-21 cm, 22-24, 25-27 cm and 28-30. It was observed that modal group of 22-24 cm size fish caught during March 2011 to Feb 2012. Shifting of the modes to next modal class was evident from the ELEFAN-II analysis. The analysis showed a curve indicating the broods or spawning periods. The recruitment was observed in April (Projected values). From the cumulative frequency calculations, it was observed that R. kanagurta attained first maturity in in first year. It attains 20.15 cm, 27.6 cm and 30.5 cm at the completion of 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd years, respectively. The asymptotic length (L”) obtained in the present study was 31.8 cm. Key words : Length frequency, ELEFAN-II, Rastrelliger sp., Maharashtra, India. 1. Research Scholar, 2. Associate Professor *Corresponding author’s email: mukeshcofsn@gmail.com Introduction The Indian mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1817) is one of the important pelagic, shoaling ma- rine fish that is widely distributed in the IndoWest Pacific region. India contributes 90% of the world mackerel production, out of which 77% is from west coast and 23% is from east coast of India. Its fishery is second in importance to that of oil sardine in the multispecies structure of Indian marine fishery (Yohannan & Sivadas, 2003). Indian mackerel is also called as “Rake gilled mackerel” and locally known as Bangda in Maharashtra. The mackerel fishery along the Indian coast is essentially comprises of a single species, R. kanagurta although two other species namely, R. brachysoma (Bleeker, 1851) in Andaman seas (Jones and Silas, 1962) and R. faughni (Matsui, 1967) along the east coast of India (Gnanamuttu, 1971) are recorded in stray numbers. However, recent reports indicate that climate change induced variations in the marine environ- ment such as sea surface temperature (SST) have impacted the mackerel and sardine stocks leading to the northward extension of their distribution ranges resulting in development of new fisheries targeting mackerel especially along the northwest coast of In-