Journal Issue Volume 29 Issue 2 Age, Growth, and Population Structure of...

Research Article

Age, Growth, and Population Structure of Conomurex luhunuas

ORCID logo and Porfirio A. Aliño2

1Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology, Victoria, 5205 Oriental Mindoro
2The Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City

Page 115-123 | Received 30 Mar 2021, Accepted 24 June 2022

Abstract

Age and growth dynamics of Conomurex luhuanus were investigated to determine the population structure. Age-specific change in shell shape determined with geometric morphometrics revealed discrimination of shape between 0-3 years old at 99–100% while 3–4 years old can be separated with 81% certainty. Using the age discrimination data, K and L were estimated at 1.00 year-1 and 7.28 cm, respectively. Recruitment is bimodal with natural mortality (M) of 0.71 and fishing mortality (F) approximated at 3.92 year-1. The exploitation rate (E) is 0.85 year-1, indicating probable overharvesting of the population under study. The presence of a deep-water population, age-specific burying behavior, and bimodal recruitment pattern are possible resilience factors.


Keywords: population dynamics, overexploitation, FiSAT, aging, artisanal fishing