Heavy landing of the tomato hind, Cephalopholis

sonnerati (Valenciennes, 1828), locally called ‘thakkali

kalava’ or ‘sivappu kalava’ (Fig.1), was recorded at

Chennai Kasimedu Fisheries Harbour in July 2008

and August 2009

Jaiganesh, P

Mohan, S

Rajan, S

Rajapackiam, S

Vasu, R

CMFRI Digital Repository

Marine Fisheries Information Service T&E Ser., No. 210, 201120Unusual heavy landing of billfishes at ChennaiS. Mohan, S. Rajapackiam, P. Jaiganesh, R. Vasu and S. RajanResearch Centre of CMFRI, ChennaiHeavy landing of tomato hind Cephalopholis sonnerati(Valenciennes, 1828) at ChennaiS. Rajapackiam, S. Mohan, P. Jaiganesh, S. Rajan and R. VasuResearch Centre of CMFRI, ChennaiHeavy landing of the tomato hind, Cephalopholissonnerati (Valenciennes, 1828), locally called ‘thakkalikalava’ or ‘sivappu kalava’ (Fig.1), was recorded atChennai Kasimedu Fisheries Harbour in July 2008and August 2009. About 7.8 t were landed in July2008 by mechanised trawlers (multiday thangaltrawlers) operated south-east of Chennai,at 70-80 fathom depth, at a distance of 50-60 km.On 10-07-2008, 1.6 t of C. sonnerati  was landed  alongwith  Epinephelus tauvina (1.0 t), and Epinephelusmalabaricus (0.6 t). A total of  3.2 t of  C. sonneratiwas landed in August 2009, forming 5.5% of theserranid landings during that year.Billfishes are regularly landed by mechanisedgillnets and hooks and line at Chennai FisheriesHarbour. An estimated catch of 65 t, 80 t, and 60 t ofbillfishes were landed by mechanised gillnets duringJuly, August and September 2010 respectively. On24.06.2010, about 5 t of billfishes were landedunusually by mechanised gillnets operated at a depthof 50-60 m in the north-east direction.Among the billfishes, Indo-Pacific sailfishIstiophorus platypterus (Shaw, 1792) locally called as“mayil kola” dominated the catch followed by thePacific black marlin Makaira indica (Cuvier, 1832)locally called as “emen kola” and swordfish Xiphiasgladius (Linnaeus, 1758) locally calld as “panni kola”.About 90% of the billfish catches were recordedin  mechanised gillnetters, and remaining 10% wereFig. 1. Billfishes landed at Chennai on 24.06.2010landed by hooks and lines.The large size billfisheswere landed by mechanised gillnetters, whereas thesmaller ones were landed by hooks and lines. Fisheswere auctioned and taken to the sheds for removingthe head portion, dorsal fin and gut.  Flesh portionwas cut into pieces, preserved in ice and transportedto Kerala.Species Catch  (kg) Percentage (%) Size range (mm) Weight range (kg) Price (`/kg)I. platypterus 3500 70.0 120-329 20-65 50-60M. indica 1350 27.0 180-349 60-120 80-100X. gladius 150 3.0 80-149 12-25 40-45Total 5000 100Table 1. Particulars of billfishes landed on 24.06.2010 by mechanised gillnetters at ChennaiMarine Fisheries Information Service T&E Ser., No. 210, 2011 21Record of the squat lobster Munidopsis scobina Alcock, 1894off Chennai coastP. ThirumiluResearch Centre of CMFRI, ChennaiIn the deep sea catches landed at KasimeduFisheries Harbour on 10th and 25th March 2011, onemale and three female specimens (Fig. 1 and 2) ofsquat lobster were observed.  They were identified asMunidopsis scobina Alcock, 1894. The male specimen,which was caught at 200- 400 m depth range, offChennai coast along with deep sea shrimps, lobstersand fishes, measured 44 mm in total length (TL) and21 mm in carapace length (CL). The femalesmeasured 45, 40 (berried) and 35 mm in TL and24, 21 and 17 mm in CL. The colour of the body wasFig. 1. Munidopsis scobina-berried female (dorsal andventral view) Fig. 2. Munidopsis scobina-male (a) and females (b,c)orange with white horizontal bands on carapace andedges of abdominal segments. The telson was lightorange in colour. The eggs were large and yellow incolour, carapace with dorsal spines and interruptedstriae after the cervical groove, the rostrum smooth,eyes small and movable. It has been recorded fromAndaman Sea at 439 m in 1894, Bay of Bengal at265-458 m in 1894, northern end of Bay of Bengal at353-748 m in 1901, and off Kollam at 180-400 m in1974. The present record in 2011 is from Chennaicoast at 200-400 m.The size range of C. sonnerati was 275-520 mm(TL), with the dominant mode at 400-449 mm. Theweight ranged from 0.3 to 2 kg.The catches were sold at ` 80 per kg. Beforepacking in ice, the head portion including gills wasbound with a rubber band to prevent water (from theice) entering into the gill opening. This ensuredretaining the red colour of the gills. The fishes weretransported to Kerala for export.Fig. 1. C. sonnerati landed at Kasimedu FisheriesHarbour, Chennai

Heavy landing of tomato hind Cephalopholis sonnerati (Valenciennes, 1828) at Chennai

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