MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study area
This present study was carried out in the iranian waters of southern Caspian Sea from october 2003 to April 2004.
However, no fish specimen was found in April.
From May to September fishing is forbidden in the southern Caspian Sea.
fresh samples of A. braschnikowi were collected from commercial beach seine catches (fig. 1).
The beach seine which was hauled by a tractor; it has a 1200 m length and a 10-15 m height, with a 33 mm stretched bag mesh size.
The fork length (fl) and somatic wet weight (TW) were measured within 1 cm and 1 g, respectively.