Abstract

Population ecological parameters and stock biomass of the purplish washington clam, Saxidomus purpuratus (Sowerby), in the southern coastal areas of Korea were determined based on the fishery data from the Divers Fisheries Cooperative and other available biological data. Instantaneous coefficient of total mortality (Z) of purplish Washington clam was estimated to be 0.7479/year. The estimated instantaneous coefficient of natural mortality (M) was 0.2012/year. From the values of Z and M, the instantaneous coefficient of fishing mortality coefficient (F) for the recent years was calculated to be 0.4578/year. The age of purplish Washington clam at its first capture ($t_c$) was 2.7506 year. Yield-per-recruit and spawning biomass-per-recruit were estimated under harvest strategies that bases on $F_{max}$, $F_{0.1}$, $F_{35%}$ and $F_{40%}$ were shown as 81.60 g, 61.68 g, 115.07 g and 131.51 g, respectively. The acceptable biological catch (ABC) was estimated to be about 1,404 metric tons.