variable, with a normal range between 50 000 – 100 000. The eggs are small (0.6 to 0.8 mm), spherical and pelagic, hatching around 20 days after fertilisation. The larvae are quite similar, requiring a trained developmental biologist to identify between species. The larvae and juveniles are at the mercy of the ocean currents, being too weaker swimmers to actively seek out coastlines. Currents are thought to have been responsible for the distribution of mainland species to offshore islands as well as the current widespread distribution of Sillago sihama. In all studied species, juveniles inhabit shallow waters in protected embayments, estuaries, tidal creeks and lagoons as well as exposed surf zones, usually over tidal flats and seagrass beds. As the fish mature, they generally move to deeper waters, showing a change in diet. Relationship to humans The sillaginids are some of the most important commercial fishes in the Indo-Pacific region, with a few species making up the bulk of whiting catches. Their high numbers, coupled with their highly regarded flesh are the reason for this, and their inshore nature also has made them popular targets for recreational fishermen in a number of countries. With overfishing rife in some areas, sustainable aquaculture has allowed the commercial farming of a number of sillaginid species, as well as the use of farmed fish to restock depleted estuaries. At least one species, the Gangetic whiting, has occasionally been used in brackish water aquaria. Commercial fisheries A small number of sillaginids have large enough populations to allow an entire fishery to be based around them, with King George whiting, northern whiting, Japanese whiting, sand whiting and school whiting the major species. There have been no reliable estimates of catches for the entire family, as catch statistics generally include only those species taken in large numbers, but there are some species which make up significant numbers of the bycatch. To add to this problem, many of the lesser known species are taken by subsistence fisheries and not reported. From estimates by the FAO, however, it is evident that the family is one of the most important in the Indo-Pacific region, having an estimated catch of 22 718 tonnes in 1990 alone. In this same report, it was shown that the greatest three utilizers of sillaginids were the Philippines, Western Australia and Thailand respectively. The records also suggested that the catch increased from 1983 when it was