Minimum Legal Size (MLS) for marine capture fisheries management in Maharashtra

The marine capture fisheries sector of Maharashtra has undergone tremendous change in terms of fishing patterns, fishing methods, spatial expansion of fishing grounds, multiday fishing and innovations in crafts and gears, among others. With the increasing demand for marine fish for consumption and other non-food utilization of fishes, exploitation of juvenile fishes is becoming more common. Exploitation of juveniles which causes ‘growth overfishing’ is a major concern as it affects the health of fish stocks and the ecosystem which impacts livelihood of fishers and causes much economic loss to all stakeholders

Record of the Trident cuttlefish from Maharashtra coast

Cuttlefish are important fishery resources landed mostly by mechanized trawlers operating along Maharashtra coast. Many new records of cuttlefishes have been reported from Maharashtra over the years

महाराष्ट्र की डोल जाल मात्स्यिकी

महाराष्ट्र की डोल जाल मात्स्यिक

Purse seine fishing in Maharashtra

Purse seines are one of the important gears operated along the west coast of India for harvesting shoaling pelagic fishes, mostly oil sardine and mackerel. Purse seine fishing method invented to harvest the large shoal of pelagic fish in Maine, United State of America during 1830’s later is was spread to Norway, Sweden, Japan etc. In India purse seine was introduced on experimental basis in 1954 under Indo-Norwegian project off Quilon, Kerala and other attempt was made in Goa in 1957 when the territory was still ruled by Portuguese. The commercial purse seining taken up by the fishers in Karnataka during the mid 1970s was later adopted by the fishers in Kerala and Goa. In Maharashtra, fishers from the southern region (Ratnagiri and Sindhdurg) adopted purse seine fishing in late eighties and Mirkarwada emerged as a major base of operation for these purse seiners. In northern Maharashtra, fishers were mostly engaged in set bagnet (Dol nets) and trawl fishing until the late 1990s when a few trawl fishers shifted to purse seine fishing expecting better economic prospects

Bivalve Fishery of Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri Coast, Maharashtra, India

Estimated bivalve landing of Maharashtra was 1,237 t in 2017. Oysters dominated the fishery (79%) followed by clams (17%) and mussel (4%). The Indian rock oyster, Saccostrea cucullata locally known as ‘Kalva’ contributed 90% to the oyster catch. The fishery was observed mainly in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri Districts. Clam landing comprised of Meretrix meretrix (44%), M. casta (30%), Paphia malabarica (18%), Katelysia opima (7%) and Polymedosa erosa (1%). Green mussels (Perna viridis) were harvested along the coastal waters of Ratnagiri. Meretrix meretrix showed dominance in all month followed by M. casta and P. malabarica. Catch per unit efforts for clams and oyster were highest during June and July month. There was good demand for bivalves in local markets during the mechanised fishing ban period. Mostly women were handpicking the clams during low tide. There was good demand for bivalves in local markets during the mechanised fishing ban period (June-July). The correlation matrix shows condition index and percentage edibility correlated with the water temperature in the creek

Automatic Identification System (AIS): An initiative in purse seine fisheries along Mumbai coast

Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a significant development in navigation safety since the introduction of RADAR. It was originally developed as a collision avoidance tool for commercial vessels to improve the helmsman’s information about his surrounding environment. AIS does this by continuously transmitting a vessels identity, position, speed and course along with other relevant information to all other AIS equipped vessels within range

Emergence of blood clam fisheries off Mumbai coast

Blood clam (Tegillarca granosa) lives in intertidal and shallow subtidal waters preferring muddy bottoms, mainly in protected bays and estuaries, or in mangroves with silty bottoms and low salinity. In India, it forms commercial fishery in Kakinada Bay in Andhra Pradesh (Narasimham, K.A. 1969, J. Mar. Biol. Ass. India, 20: 407-417).Thane Creek is an inlet in the shoreline of the Arabian sea off Mumbai where large-scale exploitation of blood clam has emerged during the recent past.The blood clam fishery near Mahul, Trombay and Darukhana which commenced in December 2017 lasted upto March 2018. They were harvested by hand picking in shallow areas and hand dredges operated from wooden canoes 10-15 feet overall length. Nearly 8-15 Fishers from Darukhana go for handpicking the class. In Mahul and Trombay the fishermen use a canoe, rowed by one while the others conduct dredging. Each hand pickers was getting about 30 kg catch. The catch from each canoe was 100-300 kg per day. The length range of blood clam caught was between 34.5 to 52.6 mm. Hand pickers sell the clams in local markets while canoes bring catch to New Ferry Wharf where agents procure it for supplying to Goa and on demand basis to hotels in Mumbai. The price varies from ` 30-60 per kilogram. As per fisher’s opinion the fishery is not regular but once every three years they are getting good catches of blood clam

Unusual landing of cephalopods along Ratnagiri coast off Maharashtra

Cephalopods are a marine fishery resource of increasing importance along Maharashtra coast and mostly exploited by trawlers. In 2017 cephalopods forms 9.4% of total marine fish landing of Maharashtra. During month of mid-October to mid- November 2017 there was sudden spurt in Indian squid (Uroteuthis (Photololigo) duvaucelii) and Pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis) catch at Harnai and Rajiwada fish landing centre of Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra

Note on hermaphroditism in largehead hairtail Trichiurus lepturus

The ribbonfishes earlier formed lowvalue bycatch, mainly used as dry fish and for local consumption. An increase in export demand in the international market, mainly from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia has led to its targeted fishing along the Indian coast and the resource is regularly monitored for assessing its stock status

Unusual landings of Terapons

Terapons belonging to the family Teraponidae, are widely found in the Indo-west Pacific region