5. Conclusions

(a) The work carried out with the R/V "Dr Fridtjof Nansen" in the north-west Indian Ocean in 1975-1976, off the coasts of Somalia, Yemen, Oman and of Iran in the Gulf of Oman, effected an integrated survey of the fish stocks inhabiting the continental shelf off those coasts of which the principal results were:

(i) a preliminary account of the distributional and compositional characteristics of the species aggregates of those waters, showing considerable seasonal variation of those characteristics within each sector and differences between the sectors;
(ii) estimates of the annual mean biomass of the stocks as at least 50%, and perhaps 67% or more of the following figures:

Sector	Demersal	Pelagic	Both
		thousand tonnes
1	392 - 822	953 - 1,214	1,258 - 1,527
2	67 - 128	128 - 225	194 - 307
3	55 - 116	112 - 224	190 - 315
4	164 - 238	376 - 495	528 - 645
5	98 - 156	730 - 903	846 - 1,017
6	94 - 108	123 - 142	150 - 317
7	106 - 139	113 - 161	140 - 214
Totals	976 -1,707	2,535 - 3,364	3,306 - 4,342

(iii) the following conservative estimates of yield potentials:

Sector	Demersal	Pelagic	Demersal plus pelagic
			Sum	Direct
		(thousand tonnes)
1	69 - 144	333 - 425	402 - 569	385 - 534
2	12 - 22	45 - 79	57 - 101	34 - 107
3	10 - 20	39 - 78	59 - 98	33 - 110
4	34 - 42	132 - 173	166 - 215	92 - 225
5	17 - 27	256 - 316	273 - 343	148 - 360
6	15 - 19	43 - 50	58 - 69	26 - 111
7	19 - 24	40 - 56	59 - 80	25 - 75
Totals	176 - 298	888 -1177	1064 -1475	743 -1522

Where "Sum" columns are obtained by addition of the preceding columns, the "Direct" columns result from application of the lower values of B_max(combined estimates) on page 37 in the expression Y_dem = 0.175 B_max, and the higher values of B_max on page 37 in the expression Y_pel = 0.35 B_max.

(iv) a demonstration of the presence of substantial concentrations of stocks in surface waters, consistently, in three localities:
(1) on the north-east Somali coast, between Ras Hafun and Ras Asir;
(2) on the east coast of Yemen, from Ras al Kalb to Quanr Bay; and
(3) on the south-east coast of Oman, in the Gulf of Masira, and of prospects of profitable trawling along the Yemen and Oman coasts down to depths of 300 metres provided that the species caught can be commercialy marketed.

(b) The estimates of biomass and yield are not only conservative but do not include a measure of some stocks lying in shallow littoral waters nor 01 others lying in the deepest 1-2 metres of deeper waters; for this reason, if for no other, the estimates are likely to be revised upwards in the future.