The Population dynamics of mud crab (Scylla serrata) in coast of Bandar Khamir (Hormozgan Province)

The Sampling one-year period from October 92 to October 93 on a monthly basis was conducted using gillnets and baited traps. 70% of gillnet catches during flood tide consisted of adults. Sub-adults and juveniles were 28 % and 4.5%, respectively. Similarly, during ebb tide consisted of 51.7%, 24.2%, and 24.1%, respectively. It suggests that gillnets are not sized selective gear. In contrast, baited traps only caught adults and sub-adults with the percentage of 90.5% and 9.5%, respectively. The CW∞  and K of males were slightly higher than females namely 21.147 and 1.38 for males and 21.023 and 0.83 for females. The mortality estimates are as follows: natural mortality (M) male = 2.48 and fishing mortality (F) male =1.2, while M female =1.78 and F female = 0.75. The results show that S. serrata population is still less than underexploited.