173 research outputs found
On the mackerel fishery of the Mandapam area
Mackerel supports a minor fishery in the Mandapam area, especially along
the Gulf of Mannar coast. The landings are, of course, small and cannot
be compared with those on the West Coast. According to Krishnamurthi
(1957), the total mackerel catch in Rameswaram Island in 1952-53 and
1953-54 amounted only to about 9-3 tons. He also found that among the
important fishes there, mackerel occupied the 15th and 11th ranks respectively
with regard to its contribution to tota catch and the monetary yield.
However, the catch and financial returns are certainly much better on the
mainland. Mackerel are rarely landed on the Palk Bay side where the
general fishing season extends from April to October. However, in October
1956, unusually large catches were recorded on this coast also. During
April-September there is little fishing activity on the Gulf of Mannar side.
Fishing operations here extend from October-March and it is during this
period that mackerel appear in the nearshore waters in sufficiently large
numbers as to constitute an important fishery. This account deals with
the observations conducted on the fishery from 1952-57 with special reference
to catch-per-unit of effort, size composition and maturity
Criteria for fishery regulation
Fishery regulation is as complicated
as life itself being concerned with the
ordering of the lives of aquatic an imals
useful to man. It is not entirely a modern
activity but had been in vogue even in
ancient times. in enlightened countries
like India. Only intuition and common
sense were the guiding factors then and
regulation was often intended mainly to
protect the spawners
On the oil sardine fishery of the Calicut area during the years 1955-56 to 1958-59
There were record catches of the oil sardine {Sardinella longiceps Val.) on
the West Coast during the year 1957-58; the 1955-56 season had been poor
while in 1956-57 the landings were moderate. The total landings in India
from October 1957 to September 1958 amounted to about 238,631 metric
tons {vide Quarterly Reports of the C.M.F.R. Institute), which represented
the highest reported yield after the 1933-34 season. During 1957-58 was
also witnessed an extension of the area of commercial abundance of the fish
inasmuch as very good catches were reported even from centres outside the
normal sardine zone. The 1958-59 season was however not as successful,
and in Calicut was productive, but short. This paper deals with the fishery
of the 1955-56 to 1958-59 seasons in the Calicut area, with special reference
to catch, effort, surface salinity and temperature of sea-water and size- and
age-composition of the landings
The accumulated stock
The concept of accumulated stock
explains the fall and subsequent stabilisation
, at a lower level, of the catch in
an expanding fishery. When demand
for a particular fish increases, the trade
concentrates the effort on it.
Length-weight relationship in Sardinella albella (Val.) and Sardinella gibbosa (Bleek.)
The length-weight relationships in S. albella and S. gibbosa were estimated. In
5'. albella, the regression coefficients of the 20-39 mm group, the larger indeterminates of the
40-95 mm group and the sexes were found to be significantly different from one another and
from 3. In S.gibboia, the regression coefficients of the 20-39 mm group and the larger fish
(indeterminates of the 40-95 mm group and the sexes) were significantly different from
one another and from 3. In both species, the regression coefficients of the fishes of the
20-39 mm group were significantly higher than those of the fishes of the larger size-groups
Variations in the Fat Content of the Muscles of the Ribbon Fish, Trichiurus haumela (Forskal)
Both the immature and maturing Trichiurus exhibit periodic
variations in muscle fat value. These are partly detennined by
changes in the quality and quantity of food consumed.
Within certain limits, fat value increases with length.
Changes in size-composition have some influence on the monthly
fat values of the immature stock, but have no significant effect on
those of the maturing group
On the South Kanara coastal fishery for mackerel, Rastrelliger canagurta (Cuvier) together with notes on the biology of the fish
North of Mangalore, the South Kanara fishery for the Indian mackerel,
Rastrelliger canagurta (Cuvier), is confined mostly to coastal waters, the
gear used is the Rampant net, a large shore-seine which exploits only a
narrow belt of the sea \-\\ miles from shore [see Pradhan (1956) for description
and figure of the net]. The use of other gear for mackerel
during the season has traditionally been under a social ban in many
of the fishing villages; but even in other places, where the ban does
not exist, no serious attempts are made to extend the area of operations.
Nevertheless, the output at these centres of coastal fishing forms a
major contribution to the total mackerel catch in India. As in other
sections of the coast, the best catches are obtained during the October-
December period, though the sea&on, as a rule, begins in October and lasts
until March or April. During other months, small quantities of mackerel
are caught in gill-nets (Pattavala) and small shore-seines (Kairampanis);
the gill-net boats venture to a distance of about 6 miles off"shore, while
' Kairampanis' are operated within a zone of only about half a mile from
the shore. Panikkar (1949, 1952) has summed up the present state of our
knowledge regarding the life-history and movements of mackerel, and has
further indicated the lines of investigation that have to be undertaken for a
fuller understanding of the fluctuations in catches. Recently Pradhan
(1956) has published the results of his study of the mackerel fishery of
Karwar. This paper deals with the coastal fishery of the region between
Baikampady and Tarapathy in the South Kanara District, with special
reference to that of Malpe, one of most important mackerel centres on the
West Coast
The "Choodai"
The sardines, other than the oil sardine, though not so important as the latter nor
as abundant, are of considerable local importance in that they are popular food fishes contributing
to a seasonal fishery at some places along the east coast, especially the south
┬лastern region. Due to their thin bodies and non-oily nature, they are conveniently and
rapidly beach dried in large quantities and exported to interior places, in excess of local
consumption in the fresh and cured states. Sordinella albella and S. jussieu are the
two important species forming the fishery, others contributing only in a small measure to
the fishery being S. sirm and S. c.lupeoides. In recent years (1960-1965) on an all India
basis, these sardines which are together called "Choodai" in Tamil along the coast of
Madras State, have contributed from 1.89 to 5.23 percent of the total marine fish catch
Observations on the choodai fishery of Mandapam area
In the economy of the fishing villages around Mandapam, there is probably
no fishery of greater importance than that for sardines, locally called
choodai. Beginning in late March or early April, the fishery extends up
to October or November and is confined mainly to the inshore waters
of Palk Bay, where specialised methods are employed for catching the
juveniles. Devanesan (1932) has given a brief account of the food of
Sardinella gibbosa, one of the species yielding the fishery; the bionomics
and fishery of the same species have also been referred to in a note by Chacko
(1946). Panikkar (1949), discussing the biology of the pelagic fishes of the
world, has remarked on the occurrence of shoals of S. gibbosa on the South
last coast of India. And recently, Prasad (1953) reporting on the swarming
of Noctiluca in the Palk Bay, observed that this was responsible for the
aet-back experienced by the choodai fishery early in the 1952 season. The
salient features of the fishery, however, are as yet little understood, and this
investigation, taken up at the suggestion of Dr. N. K. Panikkar, includes
a study of the methods of fishing, the biology of the main species contributing
to the fishery and the fluctuations in their abundance
On the food of the sardines, Sardinella albella (Val.) and S. Gibbosa (Bleek.) of the Mandapam area
That heterogeneous feeding relationship (Ivlev, 1961) in a sardine may be associated with the progressive development of gill rakers during ontogeny has become evident from the studies on the food of the Pacific sardine,Sardinops caerulea (Scofield, 1934) and the Japanese sardine, Sardinops melanosticta (Tokai Regional Fisheries Research Laboratory, 1960). This aspect has been referred to by other workers also (Larraneta, 1960) but not yet studied properly. A closely related problem is selective feeding, the investigation of which requires simultaneous collections of plankton and sardine samples, as borne out by the studies of Hand and Berner (1959) on the food of the Pacific sardine and of various workers on herring Calanus relationship (Gushing, 1955). But most of the investigations in this line have not fulfilled this condition
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