Maximum sustainable yield estimates of silver pomfret,Pampus argenteus (Family: Strometidae) fishery in Pakistan

In this paper we present maximum sustainable yield (msy) estimates of the silver pomfret,pampus argenteus fishery based on the time series catch and effort data from 1989 to 2009 in pakistan. three surplus production models (spms) and three model error assumptions estimated by ceda computer programme and two spms were estimated with aspic package. estimated biological reference point (e.g. msy) with aspic are fox model 5525 mt and fishing mortality at maximum sustainable yield fmsy = 1619,the coefficient of variation of estimated msy was 1.0 and coefficient of determination r2 = 0.58 and the catchability coefficient q = 0.00077 were estimated. the logistic model out puts are msy = 94940 mt and fishing mortality at maximum sustainable yield fmsy = 6290,estimated cv (1.0) of the msy and coefficient of determination r2 = 0.55. three surplus production models of schaefer,fox and pella-tomlinson and model error assumption of normal,log normal and gamma were also estimated using ceda package are fox model msy = 3841 (r 2 = 0.63) and schaefer and pella-tomlinson estimates were 3800 (r2 = 0.61) both the models produced similar msy results. it seems that msy estimated from the schaefer and pella-tomlinson model were conservative than the fox model which indicates a better fit. moreover,values of coefficient of determination r2 showed appropriation of the model. from the ceda analysis some outliers were identified and these were in 1986,2002 and 2009. on the basis of the outputs estimated with the aspic package appeared higher than the annual landings and seems non-conservative than the parameters estimated with ceda software. in view of the estimations from ceda package it seems that the stock are over fished and require some effective management and should maintain sustainable exploitation of the stocks by reducing fishing effort in the area and also implement conservation of an excellent food fish is required. copyright 2013 zoological society of pakistan.