The 'dol' net is' one of the most important

gear used in strong tidal current along the

coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The

Bombay duck, Harpodon nehereus (Ham)

is the main constituent of the catch so much

that the 'dol' net fishery has become synonymous

with Bombay duck fishery. However,

a detailed catch composition revealed that

Bombay duck forms 68.6-77% of the total

'dol' net landings along the Saurashtra

coas

Khan, Mohammad Zafar

Extimated catch of 6,484.9; 3,505.6 and 4,797.7 t of fishes were landed at Nawabunder in 'dol.' net during 1976-77, 1977-78 and 1978-1979 respectively. There has been an increasing trend in effort and decline in catch and catch rate. The catch rate came down from 174.8 kg in 1976-77 to 84 kg in 1978-79. The detailed studies on the catch composition revealed that the Bombay duck formed about 68.6-77% of the total catch. The other important constituents being Coilia dussumieri 1.5-9.2%, ribbon fish 3.0-6.5%, non-penaeid prawn, namely, Acetus indicus, Nematopalaemon tenuipes and Hippolysmata ensirostris together formed about 6.1-13.7% and penaied prawns 1.5-3.1% of the total dol net landings. In addition, quality fishes such  as ghol, warn, pomfret and catfishes were also landed in considerable quantities. The landings of ghol are on the increase from 4.9 t in 1976-77 to 59 t in 1978-79. Large number of juveniles of economically important fishes namely, Harpodon nehereus, Pampus argenteus, Trichiurus lepturus and Ilisha filigera have been observed in the catch particularly during February-May. The destructive nature of the gear has been commented along with the suggestions for regulation of the fishery

Khan, M.Z.

Aquatic Commons

D I Net Fishery off iJimoi54unde (Gujarat) 
MOHAMMAD ZAFAR KHAN* 
Veraval Research Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Veraval 
Extimated catch of 6,484.9; 3,505.6 and 4,797.7 t of fishes were landed at Nawa-
bunder in 'dol.' net during 1976-77, 1977-78 and 1978-1979 respectively. There has 
been an increasing trend. in effort and decline in catch and catch rate. The catch rate 
came down from 174.8 kg in 1976-77 to 84 kg in 1978-79. The detailed studies 
on the catch composition revealed that the Bombay duck formed about 68.6 - 77% 
of the total catch. The other important constituents being Coilia dussumieri 1.5 9.2%, 
ribbon fish 3.0 - 6.5%, non-penaeid prawn, namely, Acetus indicus, Nematopalaemon 
tenuipes and Hippolysmata ensirostris together formed about 6.1 - 13.7% and penaeid 
prawns 1.5 - 3.1% of the total `dol' net landings. In addition, quality fishes such 
as `ghol', 'warn', pomfret and catfishes were also landed in considerable quantities. 
The landings of `ghol' is on the increase from 4.9 t in 1976-77 to 59 t in 1978-79. 
Large number of juveniles of economically important fishes namely, Harpodon nehereus, 
Pampus argenteus, Trichiurus lepturus and Ilisha filigera have been observed in the 
catch particularly during February-May. The destructive nature of the gear has 
been commented along with the suggestions for regulation of the fishery. 
The `dol' net is one of the most important 
gear used in strong tidal current along the 
coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The 
Bombay duck, Harpodon nehereus (Ham) 
is the main constituent of the catch so much 
that the `dol' net fishery has become synony-
mous with Bombay duck fishery. However, 
a detailed catch composition revealed that 
Bombay duck forms 68.6-77% of the total 
`dol' net landings along the Saurashtra 
coast. 
Though a number of workers have stu-
died Bombay duck fishery (Nair, 1970; 
Prasad, 1971; Banerji, 1973; Bapat & Ala-
wani, 1973 and Nair & Balakrishnan, 1975) 
but no effort was made to study the catch 
composition of other constituents of the 
`dol' net landings except for a brief account 
by Pillay (1948a). The present communi-
cation is based on the data collected from 
Nawabunder (one of the three major fishing 
centres along the Saurashtra coast) during 
1976-77 to 1978-79 fishing seasons. 
Fishing effort 
The fishing effort along with catch com-
position is given in Tables 2, 3 4 & 5 for 
the fishing season 1976-'77, 1977-78' and 
1978-'79 respectively. Estimated 37,108, 
43,840 and 56,972 hauls were made during 
1976-77, 1977-78 and 1978-79 fishing sea-
sons respectively. The fishing season begins 
during the second fortnight of September 
and continues upto the end of May with 
peak fishing activities during October-January 
and March-April. 
Catch composition 
An estimated catch of 6,484.9 t of fish 
landed at Nawabunder during 1976-77 
at a catch rate of 174.8 kg. During the 
subsequent two fishing seasons both the catch 
and catch rate came down. The percen-
tage composition of various constituents of 
`dol' net landings are given in Table 1. The 
seasonal abundance of the species is given 
in Fig. 1. 
FISHERY TECHNOLOGY 
8 
10 
9 
0 
7 
6 
5 
180 
160 
140 
Y
I20 
2 
-580 
060 
20 
0 DJFMA 
1976 177 
Fig. 1. The seasonal 
bunder from 
ONDJFMA ONDJFMA 
1977178 	 1978-79 
abundance of dol at Nawa-
1976-1979. 
DOL NET FISHERY OFF NAWABUNDER 	 93 
Table L Percentage composition of dol 
landings 
76-77 77-78 78-79 
Ilarpodon nehereus 72.5 76.8 68.6 
Coilia dussumieri 1.5 3.5 9.2 
Ilisha ,filigera 0.3 0.3 
Trichiurus 3.7 6.5 3.0 
Muraenesox talabonoides 3.0 0.2 
Pseudosciaena diacanthus 0.5 1.2 
Pampus argenteus 0.4 0.3 
Sciaenids 0.6 0.3 0.3 
Acetes indicus 6.2 2.2 5.6 
Nematopalaemon tenuipes 4.4 2.5 4.9 
Ilippolysmata ensirostris 2.1 1.4 3.1 
Solenocera crassicornis 1.7 1.3 1.2 
Other penaeids 2.5 1.5 0.3 
Miscellaneous fishes 1.0 2.9 1.8 
Bombay duck 
An estimated catch of 4700.4 t of Bombay 
duck, Harpodon nehereus was landed during 
1976-77 at: catch rate of 126.6 kg. During  
the subsequent two seasons, there was decline 
in abundance, 2,690.6 t and 3,291.6 t were 
landed during 1977-78 and 1978-79 respecti-
vely at the catch rate of 61.37 kg and 57.78 kg. 
The peak landings were recorded during 
Octobr-December. The Bombay duck 
formed about 68.6 to 76.8% of the total 'dol' 
net landings. 
The catch rate varied between 8 kg (Janu-
ary, 1979) to 261 kg (May, 1977). However, 
when the data on catch rate and effort were 
subjected to time series analysis (Fig. 1) it 
indicated that as the season advanced the 
catch per haul decreased and again after 
March it increased. It is also evident 
from the graph that there is an increasing 
trend towards effort and declining trend 
in catch rate of Bombay duck. 
The minimum size of Bombay duck recor-
ded was 22 mm and maximum 345 mm. 
Clupeids 
This group includes Coilia dussumieri, 
Ilisha filigera, Engraulis, spp. Anchoviella 
spp. and Dussuniieria acuta, the former two 
being the most important constituents and 
others are highly seasonal. 
As it is evident from the catch data the 
catch of C. dussumieri is on the increase 
from 97.4 t in 1976-77 to 443.5 t in 1978-79 
which constituted about 1.5 to 9.2% of the 
total 'dol.' net landings. The catch rate 
being 2.6, 2.8 and 7.8 kg respectively. The 
catch rate varied between 0.1 kg (Septem-
ber, 1976) to 29.2 kg (March, 1979). The 
peak period of abundance being January-
April. The size ranged between 60-190 mm. 
An estimated 10.8-19.5 t of I. filigera 
were landed during the years at the catch 
rate of about 0.2 to 0.5 kg forming 0.2 to 
0.3% of the `dol' net landings. October-
December and April-May appears to be 
the peak periods of abundance. The size 
ranged from 48 to 350 mm. 
Ribbon fish 
It formed about 3-6.5% of the catch. 
The main constituents are Trichiurus lepturus 
and Eupleurogrammus muticus. There is a 
decline in ribbon fish landings from 239.7 t 
in 1976-77 to 145 t in 1978-79. The catch 
Vol. 23, 1986 
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Vol. 23, 1986 


Dol net fishery off Nawabunder (Gujarat)

CMFRI Digital Repository

Dol Net Fishery off Nawabunder (Gujarat) MOHAMMAD ZAFAR KHAN' Veravql Research Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Vera val Extimated catch of 6,484.9; 3,505.6 and 4,797.7 t ot fishes were landed at Nawa-bunder in 'dol' net during 1976-77, 1977-78 and 1978- 1979 respectively. There has been an increasing trend in effort and decline in catch and catch rate. The catch rate came down from 174.8 kg in 1976-77 to 84 kg in 1978-79. The detailed studies on the catch composition revealed that the Bombay duck formed about 68.6 - 77% of the total catch. The other important constituents being Coi/ia dussurnieri 1.5 - 9.2% ; ribbon fish 3.0-6.5%, non-penaeid prawn, namely, Acetus indicus, Nematopalaernon tenuipes and Hippolysrnata ensir05tris together formed about 6.1 - 13.7% and penaeid prawns 1.5 - 3.1 % of the total 'dol' net landings. In addition, quality fishes such as 'ghoF, 'wam', pomfret and catfishes were also landed in considerable quantities. The landings of 'ghol' is on the increase from 4.9 t in 1976-77 to 59 t in 1978-79. Large number of juveniles of economically important fishes namely, Harpodon nehereus, Parnpus argenteus, Trichiurus lepturus and Ilisha filigera have been observed in tIie catch particularly during February-May. Tbe destructive nature of the gear has been commented along with the suggestions for regulation of the fishery. The 'dol' net is' one of the most important gear used in strong tidal current along the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The Bombay duck, Harpodon nehereus (Ham) is the main constituent of the catch so much that the 'dol' net fishery has become synony-mous with Bombay duck fishery. However, a detailed catch composition revealed that Bombay duck forms 68.6-77% of the total 'dol' net landings along the Saurashtra coast. Though a number of workers have stu-died Bombay duck fishery (Nair, 1970; Prasad, 1971; Banerji, 1973; Bapat & Ala-wani, 1973 and Nair & Balakrishnan, 1975) but no effort was made to study the catch composition of other constituents of the 'dol' net landings except for a brief account by Pillay (1948a) . The present communi'-cation .is based on the data collected from Nawabunder (one of the three major fishing centres along the Saurashtra coast) during 1976-77 to 1978-79 fishing seasons. Fishing effort The fishing effort along with catch com-position is given in Tables 2, 3 4 & 5 for the fishing season 1976-'77, 1977- 78' and 1978-'79 respectively. Estimated 37,108, 43,840 and 56,972 hauls were made during 1976-77, 1977-78 and 1978-79 fishing sea-sons respectively. The fishing season begins during the second fortnight of September and continues upto the end of May with peak fishing activities during October-January and March- April. Catch composition An estimated catch of 6,484.9 t of fish landed at Nawabunder during 1976-77 at a catch rate of 174.8 kg. During the subsequent two fishing seasons both the catch and catch rate came down. The percen-tage composition of various constituents of 'dol' net landings are given in Table 1. The seasonal abundance of the species is given in Fig. 1. FISHERY TECHNOLOGY , DOL NET FISHERY OFF NAWABUNDER Table 1. Percentage composition of dol landings 76-77 77-78 78-79 Harpodon nehereus Coilia dussumieri Tlisha filigera Trichiurus sp. Muraenesox talabonoides Pseudosciaena diacanthus Pampus argenteus Sciaenids Acetes indicus Nematopalaemon tenuipes Hippolysmata ensirostris Solenocera crassicornis Other penaeids Miscellaneous fishes 10 ! 9 ~ ~ 8 E 7 20 72.5 76.8 68.6 1.5 3.5 9.2 0.3 0.3 3.7 6.5 3.0 3.0 0.2 0.5 1.2 0.4 0.3 0.6 0.3 0.3 6.2 2.2 5.6 4.4 2.5 4.9 2.1 1.4 3.1 1.7 1.3 1.2 2.5 1.5 0.3 1.0 2.9 1.8 ONOJFMA ONOJFMA ONOJFMA 1976'77 1977'78 1978·79 Fig. 1. The seasonal abundance of dol at Nawa-bunder from 1976-1979. Bombay duck An estimated catch of 4700.4 t of Bombay duck, Harpodon nehereus was landed during 1976-77 at a catch rate of 126.6 kg. During Vol. 23, 1986 93 the subsequent two seasons, there was decline in abundance, 2,690.6 t and 3,291.6 t were landed during 1977-78 and 1978-79 respecti-vely at the catch rate of 61.37 kg and 57.78kg. The peak landings were recorded during Octob~r-December. The Bombay duck formed about 68.6 to 76.8% of the total 'dol' Det landings. The catch rate varied between 8 kg (Janu-ary, 1979) to 261 kg (May, 1977). However, when the data on catch rate and effort were sUbjected to time series analysis (Fig. I) it indicated that as the season advanced the catch per baul decreased and again after March it increased. It is also evident from the graph that there is an increasing trend towards effort and declining trend in catch rate of Bombay duck. The minimum size of Bombay duck recor-ded was 22 mm and maximum 345 mm. Clupeids This group includes Co ilia dussumieri, Ilisha filigera, Engraulis, spp. Anchoviella spp. and Dussumieria acuta, the former two being tbe most important constituents and ~ others are bighly seasonal. As it is evident from the catch data the catch of C. dussumieri is on the increase from 97.4 t in 1976- 77 to 443.5 tin 1978-79 which constitnted about 1.5 to 9.2% of the total 'dol' net landings. The catch rate being 2.6, 2.8 and 7.8 kg respectively. Tbe catch rate varied between 0.1 kg (Septem-ber, 1976) to 29.2 kg (March, 1979). The peak period of abundance heing January-April. The size ranged between 60-190 rom. An estimated 10.8-19.5 t of 1. filigera were landed during the years at the catch rate of about 0.2 to 0.5 kg forming 0.2 to 0.3% of tbe 'dol' net landings. October-Decemher and April-May appears to be tbe peak periods of abundance. The size ranged from 48 to 350 mm. Ribbon fish It formed about 3-6.5% of tbe catch. The main constituents are Trichiurus leplurus and Eupleurogrammus rnuticus. There is a decline in ribbon fish landings trom 239.7 t in 1976-77 to 145 t in 1978-79. The catch 94 MOHAMMAD ZAFAR KHAN Table 2. Catch composition of 'dol' net landings at Nawabunder during 1976-77 Septe- Octo- Nove- Dece- Janu- Febru- March April May Total mber ber mber mber ary ary Estimated effort (No. of haul) 759 5340 6072 6900 6342 1440 4056 4160 2039 37108 Catch in kg 146545 1549314 9871831108982456150 177200 743274 760240 556020 6484907 Catch per effort in kg 193.1 290 192.6 160.7 71.9 123.1 183.3 182.8 272.7 174.8 Fish: H. nehereus 128775 790200 726528 688400 384750 164200 641640 643400 532590 4700483 C. dussumeiri 120 14808 22293 14688 f. filigera 7842 7902 1692 Other clupeids Trichiurus spp 120 99252 39312 69936 P. diacanthus 3612 M. telabonoides 176412 17052 P. argenteus 2427 2418 666 6600 Elasmobranchs 1750 7806 1944 Tachysurus spp 3186 2250 3240 Sciaenids 995 16956 3846 2808 Prawn: A. indicus 324324 71694 N. tenuepes 28044 217944 H. ensirostris 5840 19620 58086 49830 S. crassicornis 23850 2214 4590 Other penaeids 2843 52290 117000 22056 Miscellaneous 3675 10350 7092 10146 rate also showed a decline (6.45 to 2.5 ·kg). The catch and catch rate 'indicated higher abundance of ribbon fish during October-November and May. Though the peak periods of abundance of Bombay duck and Trichirus spp. is same it has been observed that when the catch of Trichiurus spp is very high in a particular unit, the Bombay duck catch is usually very less and at limes stray. This suggests that the Bombay duck avoids the area of ribbon fish abundance. Quality fish The catch of 'GhoI', Pseudosciaena diacan-thus is on the increase trom 4.872 t in 1976 to 59 t forming about 1.2% of the 'dol' net landings in 1978-79. The peak period of abundance being January-April. The size ranged between 125 mm-loo4 mm. ------~----~ 2502 4040 24450 13108 1342 97351 900 1160 134 19496 11058 780 6558 12720 239736 1260 4872 193464 1100 5400 3800 22545 11500 8676 1590 300 3894 7300 503 38192 1300 1200 398518 31320 40 6630 1160 285138 67 133443 100 16260 46832 11455 105301 15390 2880 29316 24000 355 160810 8640 1300 7866 6720 9593 65382 An estimated catch of 193.5 t of 'Wam' Muraenesox telabonoide was landed during 1976-77 out of which 176.4 t was landed at the catch rate of 33 kg alone in the month of October. The size ranged between 435 mm and 2220 mm. During thc subsequent two seasons the catch was poor. It appears that the shoals of this species approaches the inshore region off Nawabunder for a short duration and then move away. - An estimated 8.7 and 2.6 t of catfish, Tachysurus spp were landed during t976-77 and 1978-79 respectively. The landing is highly seasonal and the fishermen tie old pieces of gill-net on the cod of 'dol' net when catfishes are in abundance. An estimated catch of 22.5 t of silver pomfret, Pampus argenteus (Eupher) was lan-ded at the catch rate of 0.6 kg during 1976-77. FISHERY TECHNOWGY ... DOL NET FISHERY OFF NAWABUNDER 95 Table 3. Catch composition of 'do/" net landings at Nawabunder during 1977-78 Septe- Octo- Nove- Dece- Janu- Feb- March April May Total mber ber mber mber ary ruary Estimated effort (No. of haul) 784 4232 5334 6880 5684 2346 5183 10325 3070 · 43840 Catch in kg 116655 718447 422422 971976 425020 120984 139450 286540 304123 3505617 Catch per effort in kg 148.8 169.8 79.2 141.3 74.8 51.6 26.9 27.8 99.1 80.00 Fish: H . nehereus 93800 585023 300180 291600 228280 67760 82200 230750 211005 2690600 C. dussumieri 1267 3582 1482 7680 1. [iligera 3558 4356 2720 Other clupeids Trichiurus spp 2233 22992 49722 4240 P. diacanthus 84 M. telabolloide 644 512 3960 P. argenteus 2345 5696 2202 Elasmo branchs 294 647 Tachysurus spp Sciaenids 1897 2924 1416 Prawn: A. indicus 16226 25441 N. tenuipes 36720 H. ensirostris 7861 6516 5585 18416 S. crassicornis 20485 15396 Other penaeids 1701 32249 647 Miscellaneous 4529 18682 11388 10600 During subsequent two seasons 12 t and 6.9 t were landed at the catch rate of 0.3 and 0.1 kg respectively. The peak period of landings appears to be in September- November and March- April. The size range of P. argen-teus ranged between 20-309 mm. Non-penaeidprawns This group includes Acetus indicus, ·Nema-tapalaemon tenuipes · and Hippolysmata ensirostris . An estimated catch of 398.5t of A . indicus was landed during 1976-77 at the catch rate of 10.7 kg. During 1977-78 fhhing season only 76.7 t were landed, the catch rate being 1.7 kg. The landings of A. indi-cus improved during 1978- 79 fishing season and 280.8 t were landed at the calch rate of Vol. 23, 1986 74170 14982 8910 3850 6058 121981 12 156 1000 11802 53440 11984 7340 7750 66972 226673 11680 6110 27874 5116 78 1598 11919 941 1949 690 8876 7374 17145 7870 2602 76659 30400 6790 · 9730 3233 86873 1490 1275 4225 4367 49735 2260 5060 1115 44316 6682 3971 3056 2255 297 50857 18866 5939 11155 13360 6876 101395 4.7kg. There were two peaks of abundance i. e., October-November and January-March. and formed about 2.2 to 6.2% of the 'dol' net catch. An estimated 285.1 t of N, tenuipes were landed during 1976-77 at the catch rate of 7.7 kg. During the subsequent two seasons there was decline in landings with 86.9 t and 236.9 t at the catch rate of 2.00 and 4 kg. This species also formed about 2.5 to 4.9% 01 the total 'dol' net landings. November-December appears to be its peak period of abundance. An estimated catch of 133,49.7 and 147.5 t of H. ensirostris were landed during the three seasons at the catch rate of 3.6, 1.1 and 2.6kg respectively. It tormed about 1.42% to 3.1 % of the total catch. November-Decem-'" '" Table 4. Catch composition of 'dol' net landings at Nawabunder during 1978-79 / Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. March April May Total Estimated effort (No of haul) 920 6272 10791 9180 7920 4998 5608 8280 3003 56972 Catch in kg 172682 899417 849938 735720 303960 288412 392700 1015990 168870 4797689 Catch per effort in kg. 187.7 138.6 78.8 80 38.4 57.7 70 122.7 56.234 84.21l Fish: H.nehereus 160608 690400 577665 652800 66120 204600 131870 735525 71970 3291558 C. dussumieri 917 6474 8690 3720 48000 1233 163684 195757 14981 443456 l.filigera 462 6344 420 3542 49 10817 Other clupeid Trichiurus spp 1907 24349 11561 3960 20160 5498 15808 56193 56193 144993 P. diacanthus 351 550 31200 3065 9950 11541 2576 59233 M. telabonoides 1164 6240 1320 751 9485 T. argenteus 238 3476 380 2829 6923 Elasmo branchs 1820 184 1820 Tachysurus spp. 210 910 1298 2602 Sciaertids 87 5876 5170 1248 1532 1465 15378 Prawn: ~ A. indicus 1281 107309 12183 1842 91200 25336 25840 5698 98 270787 0 N. tenuipes 315 116259 7890 18000 42316 19740 17314 15030 236864 ~ H. ensirostris 3846 18811 88847 28848 520 6490 98 147460 ~ S. crassicornis 238 7607 25980 1200 800 10916 7489 2183 56413 ~ :!l Other penaeids 209 5676 8034 13919 '" tl :0 m Miscellaneous 2572 5610 17721 9432 21840 5564 6180 12131 4931 85981 N '" >< :> ... 'T1 '" :> (') ~ ~ 0 ~ t'" 0 :> Cl >< Z ~ 0 0 tv t'" .w Table 5. Depthwise catch composition of 'dol' net landings at Nawabunder during 1976-77 to 1978-79 Z ~ tti '0 1976-77 1977-78 1978-79 >-l 00 'rI "- No. of net One Two Three One Two Three One Two Three ... en Type of fishing Non- Partly Mostly Non- Partly Mostly Non- Partly Mostly 0:: tti cralt and tonnage mecha- mecha- mecha- mecha- mecha- mecha- mecha- mecha- mecha- ~ nised nised nised nised nised nised nised nised nised 2-5 5-12 12&above 2-5 5-12 12 & above 2-5 5-12 12 & above 0 'rI 'rI Depth in meter 20-25 25-31 31-36 20-25 25-31 31-36 20-25 25-31 31-36 Z Effort (No. of haul) 9553 11871 15684 9710 11674 22456 11447 28284 17231 ;.-::;: Catch in kg. 1459808 1978455 3045644 841748 877307 1786562 991651 2276016 1530022 ;.-Catch per haul in kg 152.8 166.7 194.2 86.7 75 79.6 86.6 80 88.6 t:C c:: Species: 8 H.nehereus 1172770 1426915 2100798 574054 699563 1416981 800225 1648912 842421 tti ~ M. dussumieri 29041 33870 34440 37957 25933 58073 19682 130226 293548 I.filigera 4084 6456 8956 6424 5378 2722 6249 1846 Trichirurus spp 44289 77442 11 8005 72484 51260 102929 18718 54346 71929 P. diacanthus 2589 435 1848 2989 14885 3894 18907 36432 M. telabonoides 3720 54732 135012 532 ' 112 4472 220 2060 7205 P. argenteus 5797 5420 11328 4360 3036 4523 " 1563 4800 560 Elasmo branchs 1346 1455 8699 144 797 1820 Tachysurus spp 1468 785 6423 . 87 2515 Sciaenids 1325 1120 35747 745 347 8784 210 15168 A. indicus 117176 258100 24242 37031 33483 6145 76058 116268 78461 N. tenuipes 7255 8800 269083 33374 24762 28737 26472 171866 38256 H. ensirostris 11608 4554 117181 34297 3164 12274 18195 71489 57776 S. crassicornis 33150 64620 7531 11980 6153 26183 9181 324M 14748 Other penaeids 10166 15482 135162 20479 6420 23958 4265 6230 ' 3424 Miscellaneous 14924 19269 31189 14435 13517 73443 10456 11882 63643 "" ...... 98 ber appears to be its peak period of abun-dance. Penaeid prawns Solenocera crassicornis forms one of the most important penaeid prawns in 'dol' net landing'. Estimated catch of 105.3, 44.3 and 56.4 t were landed during the three sea-sons at the catch rate of 2.8, 1 and 1 kg res-pectively forming about 1.18 to 1.62% of the catch. Other penaeid prawns include mainly Para-penaeopsis styli/era, P. hardwickii, P. scul-ptilis, Metapenaeus a.ffinis, M . monoceros and M. kutchensis . An estimated 160.8 t were landed at the catch rate of 4 kg during 1976-77. Subsequently there was reduction in the catch and catch rate which came down to 0.2 kg in 1978-79. Miscellaneous fishes 'This group includes, Polynemus heptada-etylus, Bregmaceros macellandi, Trypauchen vagina, Caranx spp. fiat fishes, squilla, crab, squid and cuttle fishes. Estimated catch of 65.4, 101.4 and 86 t of miscellaneous fishes were landed during 1976-77, 1977- 78 and 1978-79 respectively at catch rate of 1.8, 2.3 and 1.5 kg. The catch rate is usually high in September-October. Depth wise distribution of the species Depth wise distribution of different spe-cies landed at Nawabunder are given in Table 5 along with tonnage 01 the fishing craft and number of nets in operation, in the respective areas an.d the catch rates of the different species are given in Fig. 2. It is evident that the highest catch rates were recorded from the depth range of 31- 36 m, particularly of C, dussumieri, 'ghol', 'warn' and scianeids and miscellaneous spp. The catch rates of C. dussmieri were 2.2- 17 kg in 31-36 m zone compared to 1.7- 3 kg in 20-25 m and 2.9-4.6 kg in 25-31 m depth range. The better catch rates (0.2-2.0 kg) of 'ghol' were also recorded from the 31-36 m zone than the other two regions. Similarly large quantities of 'warn' were also landed mainly from about 31-36 m depth. There are gr,ater quantities of scianeid resources in the 31- 36 m region than the T_ o o < < u o u 6 4 25 MOHAMMAD ZAFAR KHAN M telabonoidE!$ Pdiacanthus Ton nes ~ r<l ~ . . , o '" _ '" '" '" 1977.!78 3'7 -00 _ "' '" '? 7 2 ~ it; 1978-'79 Fig. 2. Catch rate of different species of fish. FfSHERY TECHNOLOGY DOL NET FISHERY OFF NAWABUNDER other two shallower regions. Miscellaneous fishes were also more in abundance in 31-36 m zone. General remarks It is evident trom the data that there were increasing trend towards effort but declining trend of 'dol' net landings at Nawa-bunder particularly during 1977-78 when only 3505.6 t were landed compared to 6484.9 and 4797.7 t landed during 1976-77 and 1978-79. The effort has increased from 37,108 in 1976- 77 to 56,972 hauls in 1978- 79 fishing season. The catch rate has delined from 174.8 kg to 84.2 kg during the same period. The decline in landing appears to bemainly due to poor abundance of Bombay duck. In addition, poor landings of Trichiurus spp. 'wam', A. crassicornis were also evident. However, the landings of C. dussumieri, 'Gho!' showed improvement. The data indicates that September-January is the most prodnctive period except for C. dussumieri and 'gho!' which are more in abundance during February-March. The abundance ot 'ghol' at the catch rate of 0.6-1.8 kg during February-May suggest that this area can sustain a profitable bottomset gill-net fishery for this particular species. Depth - wise catch composition shows that the area between 31-36 m is compara-tively more productive particularly for C. dussumieri, 'ghol', 'wam', scianeids and miscellaneous species. Zafar Khan (1980) has observed that Bombay duck fishery at Nawabunder is essentially based on juveniles and percen-tage of adult fish is very low particularly during February-May (4.4%). He further reported the occurrenCe of large number of Vol. 23, 1986 99 juveniles of commercially important fishes namely, P.argenteus, T. lepturus and I. filigera particularly during February-May and suggested the need of appropriate regulatory measures to conserve young ones. The decline in the 'dol' net landings with increase in effort, indicate that the fishery is under heavy fishing pressure. In view of the occurrence of large number of young-ones of commercially important fishes there appears a need to regulate the 'dol' net fishery. I am grateful to Dr. E.G. Silas, former Director for encouragement and to Dr. S. V. Bapat, former Joint Director. Central Marine Fisheries Reuarch Institute, Cochin-682 018 for suggesting this problem. lam also indebted to Shri K.V. Narayana Rao, Pelagic Fishery Division and to Shri V.M.Deshmukh. Scientist S2 of CMFRl for critically going through the manuscript. References Bapat, S.V. & Alawani, S.A. (1973) Indian J. Fish. 20, 562 Banerji, S.K. (1973) Proc. of the Symp. on Living Resources of the Seas Around India. p. 120 Nair, A.K.K. & Balakrishnan, G. (1975) Indian J. of Fish. 22, 198 Nair, R.V. (1970) Indian Sea Foods. 7, 5 Prasad, R. V. (1971) Indian J. Anim. Sci, 41, 340 Pillay, T. V. R. (1948a) Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 48,47 Zafar Khan, M. (1980) Abstract, Seminar on Recent Trend in Teaching and Research in Aquatic Biology, Bhavnagar 

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Dol net fishery off Nawabunder (Gujarat)

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