Relationship between Fish Length and Otolith Dimensions of Yellow Striped Goatfish, Upeneus vittatus (Forsskal, 1775) along the Indian Coast

Otoliths are widely used to estimate the age and growth of fishes and to identify fish species. This information plays a vital role in fisheries management and population dynamics studies. The information about fish length and otolith dimensions relationship of Upeneus vittatus is lacking from the Indian water. In this study, a total of 237 numbers of individuals were collected from October 2018 to March 2019 and left otolith was studied since there were no significant differences between right and left otoliths. The relationships between total length and otolith dimensions were estimated by linear regression analysis and found a strong positive correlation. The maximum correlation was found between fish length and otolith length for Mumbai populations (R^² = 0.9342). In contrast, Kakinada populations had the maximum correlation between fish length and otolith width (R^² = 0.8957), and Puri populations had the maximum correlation between fish length and otolith weight (R^² = 0.9101). Present study found a strong positive correlation between fish length and otolith dimensions of U. vittatus. This finding provides new insights into the field and can be used for the growth study, fish population assessment, and fisheries management.