Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India

Deep sea fish catch from 16 stations off southeast coast of India

Volume 49 Issue 2

U. Sreedhar, G. V. S. Sudhakar and 1B. Meena Kumari*

Abstract

The deep sea demersal fish resources in the southeast coast of India were surveyed in 16 stations by using EXPO model fish trawl, HSDT II Crustacean Version and HSDT Fish Version on board FORV Sagar Sampada. A total of 2,031 kg were caught during the survey. HSDT crustacean version contributed to 72.0% of the catch followed by EXPO model (21.5%) and HSDT fish version (6.5%). The catches were
dominated by eels (21.3%) followed by the shark Echinorhinus brucus (13.3%) and the rest were miscellaneous demersal species. The catch was 122.3 kg/h within 199 m depth, 66.41 kg/h between 200-299 m
depth, 119.4 kg/h between 300-399 m and 248.5 kg/h between 400-499 m. Maximum CPUE of 477.3 kg/ h was at 637 m depth and minimum (62.8 kg/h) was beyond 700 m depth. Thirty nine varieties of demersal
organisms are reported.

Keywords

Demersal resources, southeast coast of India, unconventional protein source, bottom trawling

Date : 22-07-2008