An attempt is made to assess the available resources of demersal fishes for bottom trawling off Kakinada, in inshore waters. From the experimental fishing operation during 1964-66, the average catch per hour was 52.79 kg for 9.13 m (30') OAL mechanised boat. The catch composition was dominated by prawns and sciaenids forming 45% of the total catch. The average catch per trawling hour was more during the quarter April - June. An assessment on productive depth range has indicated that catch rate is increasing with increase in the depth of fishing

Narayanappa, G.

Sadanandan, K.A.

Sreekrishna, Y.

Aquatic Commons

E F IE E S ES 
G a s 
ll 
EC ISE 
G. NARAYANAPPA*, Y. SREEKRISHNAf & K. A. SADANANDANi 
Central Institute of Fisheries Technology Sub-Station, Kakirwda-2. 
An attempt is made to assess the available resources of 
demersal fishes for bottom trawling off Kakinada, in inshore 
waters. From the experimental fishing operation during 1964-66, 
the average catch per hour was 52.79 kg. for 9.13 m. (30') 
OAL mechanised boat. The catch composition was dominated 
by prawns and sciaenids forming 45% of the total catch. 
The average catch per trawling hour was more during the 
quarter April - June. An assessment on the productive depth 
range has indicated that the catch rate is increasing with increase 
in the depth of fishing. 
INTRODUCTION 
In view of the fact that the Indian 
Seas are underexploited, more emphasis 
is being made on the efforts to introduce 
modern fishing methods. Along the east 
coast of India, and off Andhra coast 
in particular, trawling as a fishing method 
came into existence only during the last 
decade. The Off Shore Fishing Station 
at Visakhapatnam, established to survey 
the fishing grounds along the east coast, 
concentrated its efforts mainly north of 
Visakhapatnam and that too in the off-
shore waters. There is a lacuna in the 
information about the availability of 
demersal fishes, both in quality and 
quantity in the inshore waters. In the 
recent years Kakinada has developd into 
an important fishing centre of smaH 
mechanised boats. Different workers, 
Narayanappa (1968 a & b), Sreekrishn:a 
(1970) and Satyanarayana et al. (1970) 
working from this base, have dealt with 
specific aspects of bottom trawling. In 
the present communication an attempt is 
made to provide information on the 
available resources of demersal fishes for 
bottom trawling in inshore waters. 
Present Address: 
t 
C. I. F. T. Sub-Station, Burla (Orissa). 
Offshore Fishing Station, Calcutta. 
:j: C. I. F. T. Unit, Panagi, Goa. 
Fish. Techno!. 
Narayanappa, cSreefhislina & cSadanandan: On tfie resources of demersal fisfies for 
f5ottom trarvling in insliore waters off 'Kalhnada 6y small mecfwnised ooats 
These observations are based on the 
experimental fishing operations conducted 
by the Central Instituts of Fisheries 
Technology Sub-Station at Kakinada for 
three years, 1964 - 1966, from a small 
mechanised boat Fish tech No. I. described 
by Deshpande (1962) and Narayanappa 
(1968). 
MATERIAL & METHODS 
Bottom trawling operations were made 
during day time in the depth range of 
5 to 35m. The fishing ground was same 
as noted by Sreekrishna and Narayanappa 
(1970) except during the month of April 
1964 when fishing was done in the bay 
off Kakinada covered by !attitude 16° - 55' 
N & longitude 82° E and !attitude I]D N 
and longitude 82° E. 
Two bottom trawls namely, 12.96m. 
(42.5') two seam cotton trawl (Satyanar-
ayana and Nair 1962) and 11.89m. (39') 
two seam cotton trawl (Narayanappa 1968) 
were used for fishing operations. The 
otter boards used were of three types 
with varying shapes viz., (l) fiat rectangular 
(2) horizontal curved and (3) oval as 
d~scribed by Mukundan eta!. (1967). 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIO;J 
Catch rate and catch composition 
The yearly fishing effort and catch 
p=r unit effort are presented in Table I. 
The table indicates that in 1965, in 
spite of lesser number of operations, the 
catch per unit effort was nearly 1.5 times 
more than th.1t in 1964. Further, the catch 
rate was nearly double that year eun that 
of 1966, although the effort was only slightly 
more in the previous year. It is also evident 
that, though there was fluctuation of total 
catch per unit effort from year to year, 
the trend of catch rate of individual 
VoL XI No. 2 1974 
species composition is more or less similar 
except during 1965 when the sciaenid 
catch rate is slightly more. The average 
catch rate of 52.79 kg. per trawling~hour 
during 1964- 1966 was 29.3% more than 
that recorded by Sebastian et al. (1964) 
during July 1963 to March 1964. However, 
it has to be mentioned that sporadic 
shoals of sciaenids, cat fish, lactarius and 
polynemus were met with during th(period. 
The intensity of a shoal ranged from 
208 kg. to 1624 kg. per haul and 277 .3~kg. 
to 3,897.6 kg. per trawling hour. 
Percentage catch composition for the 
three years is shown in Fig. 1. 
PERCENTAGE COMPOSf!!ON OF D!FFE!jENT FISH 
Text. Fig. 1 
1 PRAWNS 
2 LACTARIUS 
.S $C(AENJOS 
4 UPENOIDS 
9 POL'(NEMUS 
6 MOON FISH 
7 ~lOGON FISH 
G SILVER &I..LIES 
1> Sr<::A'rtS & ltAY$ 
10 CAT FI~H 
U SOLES 
12 SAURtOA 
l ll' b'!ISCELLANii10uO 
Percentage composition of different fish. 
It would be clear from the figure 
that though the catch was represented by 
a variety of demersal fishes, the dominant 
species were prawns and sciaenids forming 
nearly 45% of the total catch. The other 
species in the order of abundance were 
lactarius, upenoids, silver bellies, skates 
and rays,soles, sauricla and miscellaneous 
fish. 
Seasonal Variation of catch 
Monthly variation of catch per tra-
wling hour on an average during 1964-66 
is shown in Fig. 2. From the figure it 
138 
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Year 
Total fishing 
effort. No. of 
hauls/Tr. time 
Particulars of 
catch 
Prawn 
Lactarius 
Sciaenids 
Upenoids 
Polynemus 
Moon fish 
Ribbon fish 
Silver bellies 
Skates& Rays 
Cat fish 
Soles 
Saurida 
Others 
Total 
TABLE I 
CATCH PARTICULARS DURING THE PERIOD 1964-66 
1964 1965 1966 
748j626hrs. 30min. 706/591 hrs. 667 /564hrs. 30min. 
Total catch Catch/hour Total catch Cachjhour Total catch Catch/hour 
Kg. Kg. Kg. 
7,587.5 12.11 8,772.0 14.84 5,90Q.O 10.45 
2,226.5 3.55 4,813.0 8.14 1,368.5 2.42 
5,596.0 8.93 11,276.0 19.07 3,694.5 6.54 
2,220.0 3.54 3,537.5 5.98 853.5 1.51 
166.0 0.26 544.0 0.92 83.0 0.14 
1,149.0 1.83 5R5.5 0.99 137.0 0.25 
1,554.5 2.48 931.0 1.57 333.0 0.59 
3,008.5 4.80 2,859.5 4.82 1,199.0 2.12 
1,192.5 1.90 3,306.0 5.59 1,843.5 3.26 
160.5 0.25 1,698.0 2.87 80.5 0.14 
1,40LO 2.23 2,155.0 3.64 1.328 0 2.35 
3,329.5 5.31 1,937.5 3.27 997.5 1.76 
2,422.0 3.86 1,417.5 2.39 1,422.5 2.52 
32,013.5 51.10 43,832.5 74.16 19,240.5 34.08 
1964-66 
2,121/1 ,782hrs. 
Total catch Catch/hour 
Kg. 
22,259.5 12.48 
8,408.0 4.71 
20,566.5 11.54 
6,611.0 3.71 
793.0 0.44 
1,871.5 1.05 
1,818.5 1.02 
7,067.0 3.96 
6,342.0 3.56 
1,940.0 1.08 
4,884.0 2.74 
6,264.5 3.51 
5,262.0 2.95 
94,087.5 52.79 
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Naray.anappa, cSree!Zristina & cSadanandan: On ifie resources of demersal fisftes for 
fwttom tramling in insfiore waters off 'Ka!Zinada oy small mectianised 6oats 
is clear that the catch per hour is beyond 
30 kg. throughout the year with a peak 
:in April, with the months of March and 
May following in that order. 
MONTHLY VARIATION OF CATCH PER 
TRAWUNG _HOUR 
90,-----:=:--------, 
Text. Fig. 2 
Monthly variation of catch per trawling hour. 
The average catch per hour calculated 
quarter-wise showed that the second quarter 
(April to June) is more productive with 
the catch rate of 74.05 kg./hr. The first 
quarter (January to March) is next 
with a production rate of 58.13 kg. per 
hour while the last quarter (October to 
December) occupied third place with a 
catch per hour of 42;57 kg. The third 
quarter (July to September) was the least 
productive and the rate was 34.23 kg. per 
hour. 
VoL XI No. 2 1974 
MONTHLY CATC~I VARIATION OF DIFi'ERENT 
TYPES OF FISH 
Text. Fig. 3 
Monthly catch variation of different 
types of fish. 
Text Figure 3 showing the monthly 
catch per unit effort of different types 
of fish, indicates that almost all fish 
representing the bottom trawl catch were 
available throughout the year except 
upenoids, saurida, moonfish and polynemus 
which were not ava1labie during certain 
months. 
CATCH PER TRAWLING HOUR CATCH PER TRAWLING HOUR 
DURING 1964·66 DURING 1964-66 
EXCLUOINC CATCHES IN THE'OA'r'' IN 
APRIL1964 
11-15 16·20 :;!1-'15 ~0 Jl-~ $10 114" 16 XJ -~.<::!.. :::.30 Jl J!> 
O~J.~ RANGE IN METERS 
Text. Fig. 4 
Catch per trawling hour at different 
depth range, 
(a) During 1964-66 
(b) During 1964-66 (Excluding the catches 
in the Bay in April '64) 
140 
Narayanappa, Sreeihisftna & Sadanandan: On tfie resources o/ demersal fisfles fo'~" 
6ottom trawling in insfiore waters oft Kai!:inada 15y small -medianised IJoats 
Further, it could be seen from the 
figure that the catch rate of all types of 
fish except prawns was at the maximum 
either in March, April or May. The 
heavy catches of Upenoids and Sciaenids 
in March and Ma.y have resulted in high 
catch per hour in thess months. However, 
in April, good catch of majority of species 
was the reason for high catch rate in the 
month as seen from the Fig. 2. 55.59kg./hr. 
of saurida caught in the bay during April 
'64 was the reason for the good catch of 
this species in ApriL 
Catch in relation to depth of fishing 
With an attempt to evaluate the mosl 
productive depth range of inshore waters, 
the catch per trawling hour at different 
depth ranges is shown in Fig. 4. 
It is seen that the catch per trawling 
hour is increasing with increase in fishing 
depth upto 21-25m. range beyond which 
the catch rate is reduced. The fall in the 
catch rate at higher depth range may be 
attributed to less fishing effort when 
compared with other depth ranges or it 
may be inferred that being a small sized 
trawler, the boat might nut have been 
efficient at these depth ranges. The high 
catch rate at 5-lOm. depth indicated in 
Fig. 4 (a) is mainly due to high catch rate 
of saurida in the day obtained during 
April 1964 as indicated earlier. 
SUMMARY 
From the bottom trawling operation 
from a small mechanised boat during 1964-
66 an average catch of 52.79kg. per trawling 
hour was recorded. Though the bottom 
trawl catch was represented by a variety of 
fish, prawn and Sciaenids formed the do-
minant species representing more than 20% 
of the total catch individually. The catch 
rate was found to be good, on an average, 
during April-June(74.05kg;/hr.), followed by 
January-March(58J3) kg.jhr., October- De-
cember (42 57 kg./hr.) and July-September 
(34.23 kg./hr.). The catch rate was found 
to be increasing with increase in the depth 
of fishing with a peale in 2l-25m. depth 
range beyond which the catch rate was 
found to be reducing, 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
The authors are grateful to the Director 
and Shri G. K. Kuriyan, Head of the 
Division (Craft & Gear), Central Institute 
of Fisheries Technology, Ernakulam, fur 
their valuable suggestions in preparing this 
communication. 
REFERENCES 
Deshpande, S. D. 1960a. Indian J. Fish., 7, 
1:174-186. 
FAO/UN. 1962. FAO/EPTA No. 1573. 
Mukundan, M., A. V. V. Satyanarayana & 
H. Krishna Iyer. 1967. Fish. Techno!, 
4, 2: 53. 
Narayanappa, G. 1968a. Ibid., 5, 1:15-200 
Ibid, 1968b. Indo Pacific Fish. Coun., 13th 
Session. 
Sebastian, A. V,, K. A. Sadanandan & 
A. V. V. Satyanarayana. 1962. Ibid., 
11th Session II 198-203. 
Satyanarayana, A. V. V. 
1962. Ind. Fish. Bull., 
& R. S. Nair .. 
4:4. 
Satyanarayana, A. V. V., G. Narayanappa 
& D. A. Narasimha Raju. 1970. Fish. 
Techno!., 1, l : 23-32. 
Sreekrishna, Y. 1970. Ibid., 42-47. 
Sreekrishna, Y. & G. Narayanappa. 1970. 
Ibid., 33-37. 
Fish. Technol. 


On the resources of demersal fishes for bottom trawling in inshore waters off Kakinada by small mechanised boats

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On the resources of demersal fishes for bottom trawling in inshore waters off Kakinada by small mechanised boats

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