Disclaimer note - WWF - Pakistan

Mukhtar,
1988
14 Narejo,
1996
Detailed Ecological Assessment Report 2008 – Keenjhar Lake
15 Saifullah et
al., 2004
16 Panhwar,
2006
17 Present
observation
, 2007
River Indus 331 mm Egg size
0.32-0.44
mm
(March);
0.72-0.84
mm (April);
0.92-1.04
mm (June);
1.12-1.24
mm Jul-
Aug.)
Bay of Bengal, June - 39-51 cm 0.66-0.85
Bangladesh
August
River Indus May-
October
Kharo-Chan (Keti
Bunder)
June -
October
21.0-25.9
cm
31.0-35.9
WWF Pakistan – Indus for All Programme Page 91 of 188
cm
247-393
mm
male;
250-450
mm
female
mm
Not
available
0.39 –
0.534 mm
3.5.9.6 Migration patterns of T. ilisha
Migration of fishes can be categorized in four major types 1. Entering rivers from
sea. 2, Descending River from sea. 3. Moving up and down the upper reaches
and 4. Local migration in plain. T.ilisha (Hilsa ilisha) ascends rivers where ever
the species is prevalent. This species is considered as fluvial anadromous with
feeding grounds in the sea and spawning grounds in the middle reaches of rivers.
Earlier workers like Mojumdar 1939, Chacko 1949, Jones and Menon 1951, Pillay
1958 etc. were reluctant to consider T.ilisha as anadromous fish. Dutt 1966
suggested Indian Shad (H. ilisha) the Surashtra stock of Hilsa breeds in sea in
still waters but at the same time in Narbada River. Hilsa stocks ascend the river
for breeding (Kulkarni, 1950 and Karamchandani, 1961). Raj (1917) observed in
south India that Hilsa species spends first two years in estuaries and return to
river in the third year. Prashad et al., (1940) and Jones and Menon (1951)
suggested that in the Hooghly these species ascends in the sea during first year
while juveniles occur in the rivers (Hora, 1938, Jones & Menon, 1951; Pillay
1949; Sujansingani, 1957; Bhimachar, 1962).
Al-Hassan 1993 in the light of observations of various authors discussed medium
sized active fish restore to an inter-tidal habitat during its fluvial phase. The
anadromous stocks of T.ilisha enter sea but the data on the sea movement is
very rare based on individual observations. The present authors are also of the
opinion that most of the landings from sea are toward the deeper regions of shore
and on very few occasions the catch of T. ilisha is reported from sea. There are
species like Hilsa kelee very much identical to T. ilisha often confuse with catch of
T. ilisha.
Tenualosa ilisha from Indus is an important commercial species of Pakistan but
very little data is available in the literature. Studies that been carried are very brief
and inconclusive. The recent study of Panhwar (2006) presents brief information
on fecundity and reproductive biology. No information is available on the
351682
10,30,951-
19,40,620
Average 1,3403
– 382105 up to
572709-619482
232,1830 –
6588664