Pufferfish Lagocephalus inermis - an emerging fishery along Mangalore coast of Karnataka

L agocephalus inermis (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850) commonly known as smooth blaasop, belongs to the family Tetraodontidae and order Tetraodontiformes. This fish was considered as a menace by fishermen during the previous year (2006) as it caused damage to other species landed and the net

Gillnet and hook & line fishing off Mangalore

Fishing using gillnets and hooks and line have been in vogue along Mangalore coast since a long time. These fishing practices are very popular and found to be lucrative along coastal Karnataka. Fishing using gillnets and hooks and line has so far been operated only Mar. Fish. Infor. Serv., T&E Ser., No. 188, 2006 6 from canoes fitted with outboard engines (OBM). The fishermen fish for a day or night or at the most for 2-3 days. However, of late, mechanized crafts (inboard mechanized) operating gillnets as well as hooks and line land their catch at Mangalore Fisheries Harbour. The crafts used are large and comparable to the size of trawlers and purseseiners of Mangalore and have an endurance to stay out at sea for more than a month. As this kind of fishing activity is new to this area, the catch as well as gear details were studied and a brief account is given

Targeted trawl fishery for moontail bullseye, Priacanthus hamrur off Mangalore for surumi production

Moontail bullseye, Priacanthus hamrur has been forming a part of the trawl fishery off Mangalore, caught from a depth beyond 100 m ever since deepsea trawling started off the coast. This is not a preferred edible species in Karnataka and was not a species considered for targeted fishery

Unusual catch rates of cuttlefish in a multiday trawler

Cuttlefish is one of the commercially important group of cephalopods caught by multi-night trawlers along the coast of Karnataka. The catch rate of cuttlefish in multiday trawlers varies from <5 kg/haul during December-April period to 50-300 kg/haul during the peak fishing season in August- September

Observations on the landing of Odonus niger at Mangalore

The redtoothed triggerfish (Odonus niger) of the family Balistidae is a reef associated species landed by trawl nets operated along the Karnataka coast. This species forms dense aggregations in inshore waters and were not targeted till recently due to their poor market demand. The triggerfish shoals are intentionally avoided by the trawlers and the incidental catches are either discarded or brought ashore when there is available deck space for storage. Such small quantities landed are auctioned along with the miscellaneous fish groups. Some interest was evinced on this species by the fish meal traders due to limited availability of raw materials during the year 2008

High abundance of large sized rock cods (Epinephelus spp.) off Karnataka coast during the postmonsoon month of September

some of the multi-day units ventured into deeper waters (60-80 m) and obtained good catches of reef cods (Fig: 1) along with threadfin breams and cuttle fishes. Encouraged by this, more number of multi-day units were put into operation in September of the following year (1995) and got still better catches of reef cods

Emerging small scale trap fishery for whelk, (Babylonia spirata) in Malpe, Southern Karnataka

Babylonia spirata is a commercially important edible gastropod found inhabiting the coastal waters with sandy bottom. Commonly known as whelks, they are landed as by-catch in shrimp trawlers in Kerala and Tamilnadu.There is an emerging fishery for whelks along the Malpe coast (13° 21’ N and 74°42’5” E) with the increase in export demand. Specially designed whelk traps are operated from traditional fishing crafts to collect whelks since January 2005

Contra Harmonic Mean Labelling of Graphs

A graph labelling is an assignment of integers to the vertices or edges or both subject to certain conditions. A Graph G(V, E) with p vertices and q edges is called a Contra Harmonic mean graph if it is possible to label all the vertices x ∈ V with distinct labels f(x) from {1, 2, 3, 4, …., p } in such a way that each edge e = uv is labelled with f uv = f(u) 2 + f(v) 2 f u +f(v) or f uv = f(u) 2 + f(v) 2 f u +f(v) are distinct

Effect of Soil Moisture Stress on Physiological Response in Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) Varieties

Four varieties of grape namely Flame Seedless, Thompson Seedless, Sharad Seedless and Tas-A-Ganesh were subjected to different levels of moisture stress to study their physiological response. Stress was imposed for 14 days by withholding irrigation. Observations on relative water content, leaf water potential, leaf osmotic potential and gas exchange parameters like photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and water use efficiency (WUE) were recorded. None of the varieties could survive for 14 days without irrigation (100% stress). Flame Seedless and Thompson Seedless at 50% moisture stress maintained higher turgidity as indicated by lesser reduction in relative water content and water potential attributed to better osmotic adjustment. Marginal reduction in photosynthesis and greater reduction in transpiration rate in the variety Flame Seedless may have resulted in higher WUE under moisture stress. Higher photosynthetic rate, lower transpiration rate, higher water relation parameters and high WUE in Flame Seedless under soil moisture stress indicated its better tolerance to drought

Food and feeding habits of the narrow barred Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus commerson (Lacepede, 1800) off Karnataka, south-west coast of India

Scomberomorus commerson were collected on weekly basis during January 2012 to December 2014 at Mangalore Fishing Harbour. Stomach of 214 narrow barred Spanish mackerel measuring from 48 to 105 cm fork length (FL) for males and 45.5 to 115 cm FL for females were analysed to study their feeding habits. Fish with empty stomach were prevalent in almost all the months. Prey mainly comprised of fishes and crustaceans, with the fish component forming 99.9%. The index of relative importance (IRI) showed that the dominant prey were semi-digested fish remains (44.6%) of Sardinella longiceps (30.1%), Decapterus sp. (18.7%), whitebaits (2.5%), Rastrelliger kanagurta (1.5%) and Epinephelus spp. (1.1%), while Saurida sp. (0.7%), Megalaspis cordyla (0.5%), Scombroides sp. (0.2%) and shrimps (0.1%) were found occasionally in the gut. Index of stomach fullness (SFI) was 0.11 in August and 0.65 in January. Generally, SFI was higher during September to January and lower during February to August. The empty stomach ratio (ESR) ranged from 33.3% (August) to 92.3% (April)