Kerala, the southwestern part of the peninsular India, has
a narrow stretch of land with a long surf-beaten coast on the western
side and a lush green mountain range on the eastern side. The coastline
is 590 km long, which is almost one-tenth of the Indian coastline.
Marine fishing, using artisanal tackles like boat-seines, shore-seines and
Chinese dip nets, is an age-old tradition of the state. Mechanisation was
started in late fifties by the Indo-Norwegian Project, at first in the Quilon
area. The early sixties too saw an important technological development,
namely the shift from cotton to nylon nets. By mid-sixties, individual
entrepreneures entered the scene, paving way for a fast development
of trawl fishery in the coastal waters. Commercial purse-seining started
during late seventies, and the process of large-scale motorisation of
country crafts began in early eighties
