Assessment of Economic Loss dueto Use of Legal Codend Mesh inMulti-day Trawlers in Gujarat

• Main Authors: Mohamed, K S, Pravin, P, Asokan, P K, Madhu, V R, Ghosh, Shubhadeep, Vivekanandan, E, Meenakumari, B
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Society of Fisheries Technologists 2010
• Subjects: Bottom Trawling; Fisheries Management; Marine Fisheries; Marine Fishing

The current trawling practices result in high exploitation of juvenilesof all commercial and non-commercial species, in all maritime states ofIndia (Najmudeen and Sathiadas, 2008). For example, the percentageof juveniles exploited by trawl can be as high as 20 to 60% in the caseof seerfishes and groupers and as much as 12% in the case of squids(Mohamed et al., 2009a). In other words, there is substantial amountof growth overfishing taking place for all commercial stocks in the trawlfisheries of India. Growth overfishing occurs when too many small fishare harvested, usually because of excessive effort and poor selectivityof the gear (e.g. too small mesh sizes) and the fish are not given thetime to grow to the size at which the maximum yield-per-recruit wouldbe obtained from the stock. A reduction of fishing mortality on juvenilesor their outright protection, would lead to an increase in yield as well asprofits from the fishery.