Age, growth and biomass of the Kutum (Rutilus frisii, Kamensky., 1901) in Iranian waters of the Caspian Sea

This study was conducted to determination length and age composition, growth and mortality parameters and estimate biomass of Kutum in the Iranian coastal waters of the Caspian Sea from 2017 to 2018. The biometrics data were collected from the fishing cooperatives in the Guilan, Mazandaran and Golestan provinces. The mean (± SD) of fork length and total weight were obtained 37.4±6.9 cm and 729.8±418.4 gr respectively. The range of age was from 2 to 11 year and fish with 3 to 4 years comprised up to 73.4 percent. The mean (± SD) of fork length for 3 and 4 age groups were 33.8±5.8 and 39.0±6.2 cm respectively. In length – weight relationship a, b and r2 were calculated 0.012, 2.99 and 0.96. K value, L∞ and t0 were calculated 0.21 (/year), 61.4 cm and -0.54 respectively. Mortality parameters such as Z, M and F were calculated 0.76, 0.36 and 0.36 respectively. The biomass of kutum estimated 27437.7 tons.