From time immemorial sharks have been

the object of amusement for the sea faring

men and anglers and they were fished for

sports. At certain times of history they were

dreaded as monsters of the sea because of the

ravage they wrought on bathers, fishermen and

their boats. Even the very appearance of an

heavily built creature with open mouth full of

sharp and ferocious teeth and black fins gives

a fearsome apparition to unarmed people taking

bath ill the shallow waters. Of all the 350

species of sharks inhabiting the seas of the

globe, only less than 35 species are aggressive

and attack human beings, boats and other

objects. While it is true that there are a few

ana,cks sporadically on human beings throughout

the world, recent findings have shown that one

, is less likely to be attacked by a shark than

having a serious accident at bome or in the

roads. One should give a wide berth to larger

sharks considering their size and speed of action.

Even a slight contact with their abrasive skin

may resnlt in severe lacerations and damage

will be irreparable. One should also avoid

bathing in sea with fresh wounds especially

when sharks are around

Devadoss, P

CMFRI Digital Repository

SHARK FISHING IN INDIA P. DEVADOSS Madras Research Centre of CMFRl, 68/1, Greams Road, Madras - 600 006 INTRODUCTION FROM time immemorial sharks have been the object of amusement for the sea faring men and anglers and they were fished for sports. At certain times of history they were dreaded as monsters of the sea because of the ravage they wrought on bathers, fishermen and their boats. Even the very appearance of an heavily built creature with open mouth full of sharp and ferocious teeth and black fins gives a fearsome apparition to unarmed people taking bath ill the shallow waters. Of all the 350 species of sharks inhabiting the seas of the globe, only less than 35 species are aggressive and attack human beings, boats and other objects. While it is true that there are a few ana,cks sporadically on human beings throughout the world, recent findings have shown that one , is less likely to be attacked by a shark than having a serious accident at bome or in the roads. One should give a wide berth to larger sharks considering their size and speed of action. Even a slight contact with their abrasive skin may resnlt in severe lacerations and damage will be irreparable. One should also avoid bathing in sea with fresh wounds especially when sharks are around. During the wars there were great demands for sharks for their liver which is a rich source of vitamins A and D. The nutritive value of their flesh also is equal to any other fish or animal meat and their skill and skeleton also have ornamental value. The value of sharks had further been realised because of the high price of their fins in the overseas markets. Now that the concept on sharks has changed from one of fearsome and awe-inspiring anirnals to valuble foreign exchange earners, fIshing for sharks gained momentum. PRESENT STATIJS OF SHARK FISHING There are about 42-45 species of sharks occurring in our seas of which 50% belong to minor category having only very limited occurrence and less value, 40% are moderate category and only 10% are major category and are economically important. The requiem sharks of the family carcharhinidae are the largest and most important sharks abundanlly fished in India and all tropicals seas. The hammerhead sharks with a highly developed sensory system form an important coastal fishery. They are capable of swimming from surface to bottom alleast 275 m depth. Some sharks like white tip sharks, blue sharks, mako sharks, thresher sharks, tiger sharks etc. are truely oceanic in habitat. Some are deep water forms like squalids and scyliorhinids occurring up to 200 m. Vpto early sixties our fIshermen followed traditional methods for fIshing. Due to mechanisation of fishing industry and the 8 P. DEVADOSS availability of shore based infrastructure facilities from the 70's there was tremendous improvement in Ihe marine catches including sharks. There is no specific gear exclusively for shark fishing. Elasmobranches as a group are landed by various gear.; like trawl, hook and line, drift gill net, set net, long lines, surface trolling etc. But long line is the most effective gear in which sharks form around 80% of the catch, drift gill net which is operated at the surface lands fairly good number of sharks. Elasmobra nches including sharks are landed by trawler.; as a by-catch. The whale shark fishing, as an organised fIShery, is practiced at veraval in recent year.;. The whale sharks are hunted for their huge liver which weigh from 200-900 kgs depending on tbe size of the shark. The fishery is a viable industry in veraval where the annual value of liver alone bas been estimated at around Rs. 11.11 lakhs during 199I. (Vivekanandan and Zala 1994). The landings of sharks, rays and skates increased steadily over the year.; and reached the peak of 69.2 thousand tonnes in 1983. The production was on the increase for the three decades from 35.5 thousand tonnes during 1960's to 53.9 thousand tonnes during 70's and 57.1 thousand tonnes during 80's. The increase during seventies was very prominant and the extant of mechanisation of fishing helping the industry in increasing the production was evident during the period. The catch which was 45 thousand tonnes in 1973 rose to 66 thousand tonnes in 1974, an increase of 47% over that of previous year. Landing figures separately for sharks are available from the year 1985 onwards (Table-I). The production of sharks for these nine year.; fluctuated from 24 thousand tonnes in 1990 to 46 thousand tonnes in 1993 (CMFRI - 1995) with an annual average of 34 thousand tonnes. More thall 50% of this average national production of sharks are available from the north western region along 18-2SON. In fact the state of Gujarat which is endowed with potentially rich grounds for demeISaI fishes, contributes one thirds of total sharks landings. TABlE 1. Sharks landings (in IOftnt!S) state wise for the years 1985-93 Stales 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 Total Average Gujarat 10,523 6,964 6,997 9.203 7,259 7.139 13,263 15,976 21.628 98,952 10.995 Mabarashtra 6.461 6,587 7,962 9.180 7,354 6,939 8,421 8.038 6.495 67.437 7.493 G.>. 209 681 136 266 42 107 93 115 344 1,993 221 Karnalaka 1,418 1,996 1,469 1.783 1.283 758 1,046 88S 609 11,247 1,250 Kt2"al a 4,940 4,649 3,114 5.151 1.907 2,881 1.883 2,437 3.091 30,053 3,339 Tamilnadu 1.654 3.545 5.047 4.295 4.799 901 2,673 7,463 5.568 35,945 3.994 Poodicberry 191 12 50 159 39 13 13 47 37 561 62 Andhra Pradesh 6,230 5.333 4.162 4.851 4.026 3,679 2.411 5,624 5,239 41.555 4,617 OriMa 1,376 3.077 1,161 1,374 1,492 1,603 1,112 2.986 1.302 15,483 1,720 West Ben&aJ 97 140 136 44 40 267 939 1,692 1,828 5,183 576 Total 33,099 32.984 30.234 36,306 28,241 24,287 31,854 45,263 46,141 308,409 34,267 SHARK FISHING IN INDIA 9 Al!. a matter of abundance, the whole of west coast which is replete with centres of sbark production accounted for more than two thirds of this resource (Table-2). mannar and along the Wadge Bank is known and they are not fully exploited (Sudarsan et aI, 1988). The bountiful resource should be harnessed, otherwise it would be a national TABLE 2. Region wise average shark landings in lannes during the years 1985 - 93 West coast Region North West South West Landings 18,488 4,810 % in toral landings 54.0 14.0 On the east coast of India the south eastern region comprising Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu accounts for one fourth of the total all India production. Fairly good fishing ground exists off Andhra coast along 14-1B"N. The commercial catches landed by the traditional gears like the gill netters, trawlers, hook and line etc. are mostly from the narrow coastal zone. Beyond the shelf area is a vast stretch of untapped rich resource of sharks, and other fishes. In addition to the Fishery survey of India and CIFNET vessels, there are a number of chartered vessels of private agencies operating long liners in the outer waters for pelagic sharks and tunas. The percentage of incidence of sbarks are as high as 70-75% of tbe long line catches (Silas and Pillai, 1985). The hooking rate for sharks also is very high in the long lines in that in certain months more tban 5-8%, better than any other pelagic fishes. They are available almost through out the year witb sligbt variations in tbe monthly catches. Al!. a result of exploratory survey conducted by the vessels of the Fishery Survey of Indi'a and CIFNET, existence of potentially rich grounds for pelagic sharks off the Gulf of East roast Total Total North East South East 23,298 2,296 8,673 10,969 68.0 7.0 25.0 32.0 waste. In the words of biblical saying 'There is a large harvest, but. few workers together it in'. So every effort should be made to exploit this rich resource which is a foreign exchange earner, for the benefit of the nation. The Govt. of India have formulated various new schemes which have started showing results. In addition to chartering of foreign vessels to fish in our EEZ, our own fishermen should be encouraged and helped to build larger vessels to enable them to operate long lines in our EEZ beyond the 100 m depth. It should be mentioned here that the venture of fishermen of Kanyakumari Dist. of Tamilnadu who employ long lines for fishing sharks is to be lauded. They operate from many centres along the west coast from Kanyakumari to Gujarat almost through out the year except during the monsoon months, the peak season being September to December. The catch per unit of boat on an average is around 800 Kg. (Joel and Ebenezer, 1993). The incidence of non conventional species of sharks like the bramble shark, Echinorhinus brucus fairly in good magnitude as a fishery 10 P. DEVADOSS in the deep sea trawlers operated off Thticorin in Gulf of Mannar is an encouraging feature. Given all the facilities and liberal financial assistance our fishermen would successfully locate new grounds for this kind of deep sea sharks which can be exploited commercially. Our knowledge of sharks and other elasmobranchs group is based on the species caught within the narrow belt of coastal lOne up to 70 m or so. Beyond this there may be many more species about which we have no knowledge. At the present level of fishing elasmobranchs accounted for an annual average catch of 55 thousand tonnes of which sharks share with 35 thousand tormes (65%). The projected potential yield for this group is about 0.18 million tonnes, leaving a large gap. The group is very much under exploited. We have scope for enlarging the commercial exploitation of this group without entertaining any fear of over exploitation in the near future. MARKETING As soon as sharks are landed they are auctioned. The fins are removed and the shark is cut open for the liver. Depending on the quality the liver oil is used in various industries like pharmaceutical, soap and paints . Of late it is used for coating the country crafts to repeal marine fouling organisms. The flesh is salted and sold at the rate of Rs. 20-25 per Kg. The fins used for the export market are the dorsals, pectorals and the lower lobe of caudal. In the case of guitar fishes from the families of Rhynchobatidae, Rhinobatidae and Rhinidae, the two dorsal fins and the whole of caudal fin are preferred as superior in quality fetching more price in the export markets than the fins of sharks. The average yield of dried fins per shark roughly may be around 2.0 to 2.5 Kg. The maximum dried weight of fins per shark may be around 4 to 5 Kg. depending on the size of the shark. The main consumer centres are the countries of the South East Asia, the Middle East, the U.K. and the y.S.A. The quantity and value of dried fins are given in Table-3. Maximum of 211 .8 tonnes was exported during 1981. A look at the quantity of fins exported over the years reveals that there is not much increase in quantity of fins but only the value that has shown ever increasing trend. There is a great demand for the fins in the export market, on the other hand the present level of exploitation of sharks is very low vis-a-vis the potential yield. It is high time we put in all our efforts to exploit to the maximum this most valuable foreign exchange earner for the benefit of the nation. TABlE 3. Export of fins of sharks and guiUlr fishes during 1981-93 Quantity (T) Year of Sharks and Fins (T) Value guitar fishes (in lakhs Rs.) 1981 34,169 211.8 210.3 1982 43,109 111.9 152.2 1983 43,431 140.6 205.3 1984 36,634 i43.7 217.9 1985 36,579 93.4 129.4 1986 36,367 114.5 161.6 1987 34,340 117.5 193.8 1988 38,766 158.3 30!.l 1989 30,432 192.8 410.9 1990 25,898 11 1.0 188.1 1991 33,032 144.0 471.0 1992 47,167 155.0 515.8 1993 47,629 146.0 685.6 SHARK FISIDNG IN INDIA 11 RErnRENCES C. M. F. R. I. 1995. Marine Fish landings in India during 1985..IJ3. Mar. Fish In/or. Serv" T & E Sa., 136 Jan.-Mar. : 1-31. JOEL, 1. J. AND I. P. EBfNE~ 1993 .. Long-lining, specifically for sharks practised at Tboothoor. Mar. Fish. Infor. Servo T & E Su., 121 May, June, July: 5--8. SILAS, E. G. AND P. P. PiUAJ 1985. A critique on National Tuna fishery. CMFRI Bull., 36 : 8-19. SUDARSAN, D., T. E. SJVAPRAKASAM. V. S. SOMVANSHl, M. E. JOHN, K. V. N. NAIR AND ANroNY JOSEPH 1988. A..n appraisal of the marine fishery resources of the Indian EEZ. Bull. Fish. Surv. India, 18 36 pp. VIVEXANANDAN. E. AND M. S. ZAtA 1994. Shark fishery of Veraval. Indian J. Fish (In press). 

Shark fishing in India

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Shark fishing in India

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