Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India

Bottom trawl discards along Kerala coast : A case study

 

Volume 45 Issue 1

B. Madhusoodana Kurup, P. Premlal, Joice V. Thomas and Vijay Anand

Abstract

Kerala on the basis of assessment made on board the vessel. The quantity of discards thrown back into the sea during 2000-01 and 2001-02 were quantified as 2.62 and 2.25 lakh tonnes respectively. The discards were grouped into 11 taxa. The number of species encountered in each category were finfishes 103, gastropods 65, bivalves 12, shrimps 8, stomatopods 2, crabs 12, cephalopods 5, echinoderms 3 and four species of jellyfishes. The average quantity in lakh tonnes worked out in respect of the above groups during the study period are as follows: fin fishes- 0.95, gastropods- 0.22, crabs- 0.68, jellyfishes 0.03, cephalopods- 0.029, stomatopods- 0.4, juvenile shrimps - 0.05, soles- 0.03, eggs-0.089, echinoderms - 0.018, snakes- 0.001. In both the years, finfish appeared as the dominant group among the discards. Discards were highest during September in both the years, whereas it was least in November in 2000-01 and in December 2001-02.The edible portion of the discards during 2000-01 was quantified as 0.87 lakh tonnes, which accounted for 33.3% while in 2001-02 it was 0.8 lakh tonnes accounting for 35.5% of the total discards. The average catch per hour of discards was 58.8 and 52.5 kg/hr during the first and second years respectively while the average catch per unit during the preceding and succeeding years were 359 and 307 kg/unit respectively. During the first year catch per unit as high as 800 kg was recorded in September while in the second year, the highest value recorded was 692 kg/hr in August.

Date : 30-06-2003