At Minicoy, fish catches are landed on the beach adjacent to the villages on the lagoon side during fair season, October to April-May and therefore a fisheries harbour in its strict sense does not exist there

Sivadas, M

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MARINE FISHERIES INFORMATION SERVICE Jf^ «4 *,'»^r„„ -i. r 1 < ^ H ^ ' ^ TTST TECHNICAL AND T<^ ^ ^ I < 3 4 --4^ I o4 c H EXTENSION SERIES r^^t^ ^ H ^ Mirr>H4cb1 CENTRAL MARINE FISHERIES ar^prsTT^ TTT«rr^ RESEARCH INSTITUTE <=*^irt^H, 'MTRT COCHIN , INDIA 'MNrfM ^ r f r r 3 T ^ S T R Mf-fMc^ INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 8 4 3 MAJOR AND MINOR FISHERIES HARBOURS OF INDIA 9. FISHERIES JETTY AT MINICOY, LAKSHADWEEP At Minicoy, fish catches are landed on the beach adjacent to the villages on the lagoon side during fair season, October to April-May and the-refore a fisheries harbour in its strict sense does not exist there. The boats are anchored in the lagoon near the shore. However, there is one fishe-ries jetty which mainly facilitates the pole and line boats to come and sell the tuna to the can-ning factory. The details of the jetty are as follows: Approach facility : Length Width Berthing facility: Length Width Cost of construction Nearby processing facihty Remarks 147.1 m 3.0 m 8.5 m 5.3 m Rs. 24 lakhs A tuna canning factory is located near the jetty Eventhough the potential yield of tunas from the seas around Lakshadweep has been estima-ted as 50,000 to 90,000 tonnes, the average pro-duction from this area is only 6,300 tonnes. In Minicoy, major part of tuna catch after TABLE l. Catch details for 1994-'95 (in tonnes) Fish species pole & line Trawl Skipjack Yellowfln Other tunas Bill Ashes Wahoo Dolphin flsh Shark Carangids Barracuda Others Total tuna catch Total flsh catch 969.0 99.4 1.4 1.1 2.9 2.7 0.5 1.5 1,069.8 1,078.5 11.2 5.3 1-1 3.3 0.6 2.0 1.4 0.4 0.3 16.5 25.6 their local consumption is converted into "Masmin" and are sold to dealers in Calicut, Man-galore and Tuticorin. During good catch, a part of it is also sold to the canning factory for making canned tuna. As the other fishes landed at pre-sent are quite negligible, they are used for local consumption only. The tuna pole and line fishery at present ope-rates within a narrow belt around the island. So the success depends on the availability of tuna in the ground, its response to hooking and availabi-lity of sufficient bait fishes. Hence the following line of action would help to develop and sustain the fishery. (1) The fishermen are now unable to expand Prepared by : M. Sivadas, Minicoy Research Centre of CMFRI, Minicoy. Lakshadweep, India. 31 the area of fishing because of their inability to go to distant fishing areas that are forecast by remo-te sensing technique. Installation of navigational aids will help to a great extent in venturing to areas hitherto not fished. (2) In certain months, the catch will be very poor despite the availability of fish in the ground due to a phenomenon called 'non-biting by tunas'. Moreover, the pole and line fishing is at times affected by the non-availability of sufficient baitflshes. To circumvent these problems diversi-fication of the fishing techniques by introducing gill-netting may be tried. (3) The high catch rates of fishing from schools associated with floatsam indicate the use-fulness of floating fish aggregating devices for aug-menting the tuna production. (4) The coral colonies which harbour the live-bait fishes are prone to destruction as a result of siltation from indiscriminate dredging and blasting. Therefore these activities should be minimised as far as possible. (5) The introduction of larger boats with adequate navigational aids and storing facilities for 4-5 days of fishing mainly long lining is worth trying. Already some fishermen have come for-ward to try this. CD 32 

Major and minor fisheries harbours of India. 9. Fisheries jetty at Minicoy, Lakshadweep

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Major and minor fisheries harbours of India. 9. Fisheries jetty at Minicoy, Lakshadweep

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