Domestic fish marketing in India - changing structure, conduct, performance and policies

This study has been conducted in all the major coastal states and some selected inland states to understand the domestic marketing of fish in India. The total marketing costs of auctioneer, wholesaler, retailer, vendor, marine fishermen cooperative society and contractor/freshwater fishermen cooperative society have been found to be Re 0.98, Rs 8.89, Rs 6.61, Rs 4.50, Rs 6.00 and Rs 3.51, respectively. The marketing efficiencies for Indian major carps (IMC), sardine and seer fish have been found to vary from 34 per cent to 74 per cent, depending on the length of market channel. The marketing efficiency has been found more in the case of marine species than freshwater species, since the latter travel longer distances from the point of production to consumption centre, passing many intermediaries as compared to the former. The fisherman’s share in consumer’s rupee has shown variations across species, marketing channels and markets. The infrastructure facilities at most of the surveyed landing centres, fishing harbours and wholesale and retail markets have been found grossly inadequate and poorly maintained. The study has highlighted the need for formulating a uniform market policy for fishes for easy operation and regulation so that the country’s fish production is efficiently managed and delivered to the consuming population, ensuring at the same time remunerative prices to the fishers.Marketing,

भारत के लूटजानिडे परिवार की मछलियों की बैविघता

कृपया पूरा लेखा पढ

Fishery and stock status of cuttlefishes off Andhra coast, India with focus on the needle cuttlefish Sepia aculeata Van Hasselt, 1835

The fishery and stock status of cuttlefishes along the northern coast of Andhra Pradesh was studied with special reference to the needle cuttlefish; Sepia aculeata Van Hasselt, 1835. Cuttlefishes caught by trawlers along the coast of Andhra Pradesh contributed 68.29% of the total cephalopod landings of the state during the study period (2006-2016). The average annual cephalopod landing in Andhra Pradesh for the study period was 2991 t and the mean annual catch per hour (CPH) during 2006-2016 was 0.47 kg h-1. The cumulative sum (CUSUM) analysis indicated increasing trend in cuttlefish landings of the state during the study period. Stock status plots indicates that cuttlefish stocks along the Andhra Pradesh coast are in the “fully exploited” phase

Bayesian State-space Implementation of Schaefer Production Model for Assessment of Stock Status for Multi-gear Fishery

Knowing the status of marine fish stock is of utmost importance to develop management strategies for sustainable harvest of marine fishery resources. A widely accepted approach towards this is to derive sustainable harvest levels using time series data on fish catch and fishing effort based on fish stock assessment models like Schaefer’s model that describe the biomass dynamics. In India, the marine fishery is of complex multi-species nature where in different species are caught by a number of fishing gears and each gear harvests a number of species making it difficult to obtain the fishing effort corresponding to each fish species. Since the capacity of the gears varies, the effort made to catch a resource cannot be considered as the sum of efforts expended by different fishing gears. Hence, it demands the importance of effort standardisation for making use in stock assessment models. This paper describes a methodology for the standardization of fishing efforts and assessing fish stock status using Bayesian state-space implementation of the Schaefer production model (BSM). A Monte Carlo based method namely Catch-Maximum Sustainable Yield (CMSY), has also been used for estimating fisheries reference points from landings and a proxy for biomass using resilience of the species. The procedure has been illustrated with data on Indian mackerel (Rastrelliger Kanagurta) collected from the coastal state of Andhra Pradesh, India during 1997-2018. Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) of Indian mackerel for Andhra Pradesh has been estimated. A comparison between both CMSY and BSM methods have been made and found that the estimates are in close agreements

Pampus chinensis (Euphrasen, 1788)

Laterally compressed oval shape body, grey or brown coloured dorsally and silvery white on lateral sides and fins. Blunt snout with small mouth and eye shorter than snout; straight forehead. Dorsal and anal spines absent; dorsal soft rays 43-50; anal rays 39-42. Caudal peduncle short and deeply compressed with no scutes. Small, cycloid scales, barely extending onto fin bases. Naked patch on head and nape with longitudinal sensory canals, patch not extending above pectoralfin base

Trophodynamics of Nemipterus japonicus (Bloch, 1791) in the trawl landings along the north-east coast of India

The trophodynamics of Nemipterus japonicus (Bloch, 1791) along the north-east coast of India was studied during 2012-2015 based on specimens collected from trawl landings at Digha, Paradeep (northern region), Visakhapatnam and Kakinada (southern region). Crustaceans were the preferred prey with index of relative importance (IRI) of 50% in the northern region and 42.4% in the southern region. Among crustaceans, Oratosquilla dominated in both the regions followed by crabs and several species of penaeids and nonpenaeids. Finfishes ranked next in importance (IRI% of 32.1 in northern region and 39.9 in southern region) and included Stolephorus spp., silverbellies, Coilia sp., other clupeids, Apogon spp., mackerel, sardines, eels, priacanthids, Bregmaceros sp. and sciaenids. Along northern region, in juveniles and preadults, the diet comprised chiefly of crustaceans (IRI% of 72.27 and 52.76), followed by finfishes (IRI% of 15.37 and 27.65). In the southern region, adult fishes exhibited higher preference for finfishes (IRI% of 47.5 to 62.8). Feeding intensity was low throughout the year with close to half (48.23% in northern region and 43.67% in southern region) of the fishes exhibiting empty or trace stomach conditions which increased with an increase in age and size of fish. High similarity of 75.54% in the northern and 84.19% in the southern region was recorded in the diet contents of smaller and moderate sized adults. Annual and seasonal mean similarity in the diet components between the regions was 69.9 and 53%. Prey contents in juveniles between both the regions exhibited a similarity of 59.5%, while preadults and adults recorded similarities of 62.7 and 68.2% respectively

Reproductive biology of Nemipterus japonicus (Bloch, 1791) in the trawl grounds along the north-east coast of India

The reproductive biology of Nemipterus japonicus (Bloch, 1791) along the north-east coast of India was studied during 2012-2015 based on samples from the trawl landings at Digha, Paradeep, Visakhapatnam and Kakinada. Adults dominated the landings. Significant contribution by females was observed in most months of the year. Size at first maturity for females was 15.1 cm. Peak spawning season was during August to February and September to March in the northern and southern regions. Maturity and gonado-somatic index (GSI) were found to correlate well with sea surface temperature (SST). Fecundity increased with length and weight and varied from 13,176 to 1,30,798. Ova diameter distribution indicated the species to be a multiple/batch spawner

New report confirming the presence of Bennett’s stingray, Hemitrygon bennettii (Elasmobranchii: Myliobatiformes: Dasyatidae), from the western Bay of Bengal

The occurrence of Bennett’s stingray, Hemitrygon bennettii (Müller et Henle, 1841), is confirmed from Indian waters, based on a single male specimen (370 mm DW) collected from Visakhapatnam, western Bay of Bengal on 28 January 2017. Existing, updated reports on the distribution of the species, places it in the Indo-Pacific region with the western limit being the Strait of Malacca. With the presently confirmed occurrence from the western Bay of Bengal, the known distribution of the species extends further westwards to the Indian east coast, although it is likely to be a rare species in Indian water

In Deep Waters : Sustaining India’s Marine Fisheries in a multistakeholder, multi-species, multi-fleet scenario

Indian marine fisheries generated nearly $7.08 billion in 2017 through export and provided livelihood for 14 million people of the country. Till early 1980’s marine fisheries sector of the country was an open access fishery which slowly changed to restricted access fishery with introduction of Marine Fisheries Regulation Acts (MFRA) with some temporal and spatial restrictions to fishing. India’s marine fisheries sector is dominated (63%), by the small-scale sector in fleet number on which about 70% active fishermen depend for sustaining their livelihoods. However, the sector is facing multiple challenges stemming from unsustainable fishing practices, habitat degradation due to coastal pollution and conflicts among its diverse stakeholders. Increase in number of fishing crafts, extension of fishing grounds and improved technological efficiency of fishing gears has to a certain extent masked the progressive creep of un-sustainability in India’s marine fisheries sector. Marine fishermen of the country are competing with each other over limited, marine resources. This situation is exacerbated by the limited enforcement of regulations and ineffective monitoring mechanisms

Stock assessment of Bombayduck Harpadon nehereus (Hamilton, 1822) from Gujarat coast using non-equilibrium production model

Bombayduck Harpadon nehereus, harvested mainly by dol nets (stationary bag nets), has been a prolific fishery in the northern region of Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Biomass and maximum sustainable yield (MSY) estimates for the Bombayduck stock in the Saurashtra region were obtained from a non-equilibrium surplus production model approach utilising catch per unit effort (CPUE) time series derived from fish landing data. Fox model was found to be the most appropriate defining model and the results demonstrated that the stock is currently being overexploited