MARINE FISH PRODUCTION

Marine fisheries resources and potential of India

India has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 2.02 million sq. km. The harvestable potential of marine fishery resource in the EEZ has been estimated at about 3.9 million tonnes. An estimation of the depth-wise potential (as shown in table below) shows that about 58% of the resources are available in 0-50 m depth, 35% in 50-200 m depth and 7% in depths beyond 200m. The marine fishing fleet of India comprises of about 2.26 lakh traditional crafts (including about 44,578 motorized traditional crafts) and 53,684 mechanized boats. 

Potential fisheries resources and level of exploitation in Indian EEZ

Status of marine fisheries in Kerala

Kerala is bestowed with a coastline of 590 km and a continental shelf spanning 40,000 sq. km. Kerala has 222 coastal villages in 9 coastal districts. It also has 9 harbours and 17 landing centres. The potential fisheries resources amount to 7 lakh tonnes. However, the net production from this sector was about 5.61 lakh tonnes during 2006-07. Nearly 2.22 lakh active fishermen directly and another 8.56 lakh fishermen are indirectly dependent on this sector.

In Kerala the fishing fleet comprises of 29,177 traditional crafts, 14,151 motorized crafts and 5,504 mechanized boats. The contribution by the mechanized and motorized sector accounts for 87% of the total catch, while the artisanal sector accounts for only 13%. The fishery resource that is currently exploited from inshore waters of Kerala is listed below.

Group-wise composition of marine fish landings in Kerala during 2005-06

The table shows that oil sardines (Sardinella longiceps) dominated (38.28%) the marine fish landings of Kerala during 2006-07. Other commercially exploited groups were penaeid prawns (10.12%), mackerels (8.18%) and other clupeids (6.03%).

Marine fish production sector-wise

Based on their vertical distribution fishes are broadly classified as pelagics or demersals. Species those are distributed from a depth of 5 m above the seafloor to the sea surface are called pelagics and those distributed from the seafloor to a 5 m depth above are called demersals.

Pelagic fish production

The annual average marine fish production in 2003-04 was 2.61 million tonnes, of which pelagics contributed 1.43 million tonnes against an annual catchable potential yield of 1.92 million tonnes from Indian EEZ. During the last decade pelagic finfish resources contributed an average of 51% of the total marine fish production; of which about 70% was from within 50 m depth zone.
State-wise contribution of pelagic fish production during 2005 showed that Kerala ranked first among the maritime states of India contributing about 24% to the total pelagic fish-catch, followed by Gujarat contributing to 18%.

Conventional canoes, Pablo-type boats and catamarans are fishing crafts used in the exploitation of pelagic resources. The gears used include shoreseine, gillnet, purse seine, ring seine, drift nets, hook and line, pole and line etc.

Demersal fish production

Demersal fish groups such as the sharks, groupers, snappers, threadfins, pomfrets and Indian halibut are commercially valuable and contribute substantially to the economy of Indian marine fisheries. In 1970-79 due to rapid expansion of commercial trawling for shrimps resulted in significantly high production of demersal finfishes also. The demersal finfish landing increased by 4 times from an annual average of 1,74,350 tonnes during 1961-65 to 7,20,517 tonnes during 2000-04. However, their contribution to total marine landings decreased to 24.9% in 2003-04.

Annual average fish landings along Indian coast during 2003-04

The demersal fisheries exploited 21 major fish groups. Table below shows the major demersal finfish groups and their contribution (%) to the demersal landings of the respective coast during 2001-04.

The table clearly indicates the diversity in the percentage distribution of various finfishes among the four zones. While, Sciaenids (18.4%) and Threadfin breams (17.3%) dominated the all India demersal finfish catch. In South West coast, which also includes Kerala, the dominant fish groups were Threadfin breams (33.2%) and Soles (19.0%).

Trawling is one of the fishing methods used in commercial demersal fish exploitation. Trawlers are employed in deep-sea fishing up to 400 m depth. Depending upon the depth and target fish to be caught there has been a revolution in the design of trawl nets. This innovation resulted in remarkably higher catches of midwater stocks like squids, cuttlefishes, carangids and ribbonfishes. Similarly, shrimp trawl nets, deep-sea trawl nets, also have been administered to catch specific target fish groups.

Mostly medium sized vessels (38-48’) operate trawl net to exploit marine crustaceans from inshore to deep-sea grounds; targeting shrimps. Crabs and lobsters are caught as bycatch. Mini trawl regularly operate in near shore waters along Kerala coast. With the rampant use of trawls and intensification of trawler operations there has been a decline in the crustacean catch in recent years

Production trend of different crustacean groups, in kg

Cephalopods are by far the most important group among molluscs with an average annual production of about 1,05,000 tonnes. They form only 4-5 % of the total marine fish landings. They are caught mostly by mechanized trawlers operating up to 200 m depth. Cephalopods exploited from Indian seas can be broadly divided into squids, cuttlefishes, and octopuses. The west coast contributes to the bulk (86%) of cephalopod production, Kerala (34%), Maharashtra (26%) and Gujarat (17%) being the major producing states.

Last updated: 24-4-2008