Indian Journal of Fisheries 40 (1,2) : 104-111, March-June 1993 Crustacean fishery resources of India - An overview C SUSEELAN' and N N PILLAI^ Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochin, Kerala 682 014 ABSTRACT The recent trend in crustacean fishery of India has been reviewed based on the landings during 1984-1992. The fishery as a \^iiole inqjroved over the years reaching a record level of 0.39 miUicn tcones in 1991. Brawn landings, which accounted for about 72% of the crustacean fishery, showed a reaunkable leap since 1988 as a result of extended fishing by shrimp trawlers over time and ^ace. and the innovative fishing in the traditional sectcr. The changed fishing pattern in the mechanized as well as aitisanal sectors, and its intact en catch and ^ecies conq)osition are outlined. The average production of 0.225 millioo tcnnes of prawns realized at present is very close to the estimated catdiable potential of the 0-50 m depth zone. Stock assessments of in:;>ortant species also reveals that the coastal >shrinq> resource of India is fiilly e;q>loited at present. Some species like Metapenaeus dohsoni, Penaeus indicus and P. semisulcatus ate overfished in their respective areas of fishery. The lobster fishery, on the whole, is in a state of decline. On the north-west coast, stock assessment of the princ^al ^ecies Panulirus polyphagus has shown that to reach the MSY level trawling e£foit would have to be considerably reduced which may not be feasible as this fishing e£foit is targeted for other resources. Proper conservation measures are therefore needed to inwove the fishery. The various problems faced by the fishery due to human activities and the measures to improve crustacean production are discussed. India has ever remained major products necessitated scientific management contributor to the world production of of this resource for its sustained fishery in marine crustaceans. During 1984-1990, it the country. The Central Marine Fisheries contributed, on an average, 3.81 million Research Institute, realizing the need for metric tonnes (mt). The country's average revelant data, launched systematic annual production of 0.29 million m t for investigations on the resource characteristics the same period formed about 8% of the and biology of commercially important total crustacean landings of the world and crustaceans provided by a wealth of 60% of that of the Indian ocean. A retrospect information from various workers (Anon. of India's marine fisheries development 1986. Kagwade 1987, 1988, Lalithadevi during the past 3 decades would reveal that 1987, Rao 1989, Manickam et al. 1989). the period witnessed phenomenal increase Periodic evaluation of the fishery at regional in the exploitation of important varieties of as well as national levels and assessment of crustaceans such as prawns and lobsters on stocks of major species have also been account of their high export value. The attempted by many workers. Of these the dramatic growth of the seafood export contributions of Alagaraja et al (1986), industry based primarily on crustacean George et al. (1988), Rao (1988), Smitha Paralkar and Devaraj (1990), Suseelan Present address: ''^ Senior Scientist, Central et al. (1992) and Suseelan and Rajan (1993) Marine Fisheries Research hisitute. Cochin 14. on prawns, and of Kagwade et al. (1988) 104 March-June 1993] STOCK ASSESSMENT OF THE NEEDLE CUTIXEFISH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Pauly D and David N. 1981. ELEFAN, a BASIC program for the objective extraction of growth We express our gratitude to Dr P S B parameters from length frequency data. Meeres R James, formerly Director of CMFRI, for forsch 28 (4):205-U. suggesting this topic and for his keen interest Rahaman A A. 1967. Gonad and hepatic indexes of the throughout the study. Indian Cephalopoda Sepioteuthis aretipinnis Gould and Sepia aculeata Ferrussae and REFERENCES d'Orbigny. Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Science 6TaO): 104-13. Alagaraja K. 1984. Simple methods for estimation of Sitas E G, Sarvesan R, Satyanarayana Rao K, parameters for assessing exploited fish stocks. Prabhakaran Nair K and Meiyappan M M. 1986a. Indian Journal of Fisheries. 31: 177-208. Identity of common species of cephalopods of Caddy J F 1983. The Cephalopods; Factors relevant to India. Silas E.G. (Ed.), Cephalopod Bionomics, their population dynamics and to the assessment Fisheries and Resources of the Exclusive Economic and management of stocks. Caddy J F (Ed.) Zone of India. Bulletin of the Central Marine Advances in assessment of world cephalopod Fisheries Research Institute 37: 5-12. resources. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 231: Silas E G, Satyanarayana Rao K, Sarvesan R, 416-52. Prabhakaran Nair, Vidyasagar Kuber, Meiyappan Durchon M and Richard A. 1967. Etude, en culture M M, Appanna Sastri Y and Narayana Rao B. organotypique, du role endocrine dela glande 1986b. Some aspects of the biology of cuttlefishes. optique dans la maturation ovarienne cbez Bulletin, Central Marine Fisheries Research Sepia officinalis L. (Mollusque, Cephalopode). Institute 37: 49-70. C.R. Hebd. Seances Acad. 5c/., D. 264: 1497- Silas E G Meiyappan M M, Sarvesan R, Prabhakaran 1500. Nair, Srinalh M and Satyanarayana Rao K. 1986c. Jones R. 1984. Assessing the effects of changes in Stock Assessment : Squids and cuttlefishes at exploitation pattern using length composition data selected centres. Bulletin of the Central Marine (with notes on VPA and cohort analysis). FAO Fisheries Research Institute ; 71-79. Fisheries Technical Paper 256: 118. Sparre P. 1985. Introduction to tropical fish stock Murty V S. 1989. Mixed fisheries assessment with assessment. Rome, FAO, Denmark - Funds - in - reference to five important demersal fish species Trust, FI: GCP/INT/392/DEN, Manual 1: 338p. landed by shrimp trawlers at Kakinada. Sparre P. 1987. Computer programmes for fish stock Contributions to Tropical Fish Stock Assessment assessment. Length-based fish stock assessment in India, Venema S C and Van Zalinga N P (Eds), (LFSA) for Apple II Computers. FAO Fisheries FI:GCP/INT/392/DEN/l:69.86. Technical Paper (101) Suppl. 2; 217. 103 Mardi-June 1993) CRUSTACEAN nSHERY RESOURCES OF INDIA on lobsters are some of the recent ones. large scale at many centres, particularly Silas et al. (1984), reviewing the shrimp along the Karnataka and Saurashtra coasts. fishery of India for 1962-81, discussed in Trawling in nearshore waters, night trawling detail the various management problems and reduction of cod-end mesh sizes of associated with the fishery and pointed out trawls to a very low level are some of the appropriate management techniques that other notable changes that have been made could be adopted in India to ensure recently in this ractor in order to increase maximum sustainable yield. In the present shrimp catch. account an attempt has been m^ie to review the recent developments that have taken Changing pattern of fishing in the place in crustacean fisheries of the country, traditional sector with r^erence to fishing pattern, production The aggressive efforts to motorize our trends, problems and fiiture prospects. country crafts during the past few years has been a revolutionary step in modernizing TREND OF FISHING fishing in the traditional sector. On the gear The later part of eighties witnessed side, though fixed bag-nets, including dol considerable increase in the operation of nets, operated in the northern regions have shrimp trawlers which continued to be the undergone little change over the years, many major fishing units involved in the innovations havie taken place on the gears exploitation of crustaceans. The normal used in other parts of the coimtry, which fishing grounds of small travders lie within have changed the whole scenario of capture the 50 m depth line in most parts of Indian fisheries in the traditional sector of these coast, whereas the large trawlers of 20-25 regions. The mattu bale of Karnataka coast m OAL operating ir. the north-eastern region and Ring seine of Kerala coast, introduced cover deeper areas up to 100 m. In the in 1984 and 1985, respectively, are smaller traditional sector, a large variety of nets versions of purse seines. They have proved operated by mechanized and non- to be more efBcient than the conventional mechanized country craft's are involved in boat seines for exploiting fish and prawns the fishery, of which dol nets, seines and fi-om the coastal waters. In Kerala, the ring gill nets are most important. seines have almost replaced the conventional. boat seine, thanguvallia, the principal gear Changing pattern of fishing in the trawl used for the Mud bank fishery (chakara) sector for ages. The mini trawls of Kerala operated The increasing demand for prawns and from motorized country crafts and lobsters for export coupled with the declining thalluvalai of Pdk Bay-Gulf of Mannar trend or stagnation in output from the region are recent introductions to catch conventi(Hial trawling grounds brought about shrimp from shallow coastal waters. considerable change in the pattern of trawler The bottom-set gill nets have become operations in recent years. Many of the small more popular than before for catching and medium vessels engaged in coastal large-size prawns, and they are being fishing have extended the range of their increasingly used throughout the Indian qierations to deeper waters up to ^xtut 80- coast. A more efficient selective gear 90 m. Long trip qierations involving 2-5 recently introduced in the artisanal fishery days fishing have also been resorted to on is the trammel net commonly referred to as 105 SUSEELAN AND PILLAI [Vol.40, No. 1,2 'Disco vala'. This triple walled entangling 1992 amounted to Rs 14 500 million, comes net was first introduced along the coast of from shrimp products. The estimated armual Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu in prawn production, after stagnating around 1984, and soon it became very popular on 0.2 million tonnes till 1987, showed a steady account of its impressive performance.