Cephalopod fishing

Abstract

Cephalopod resources are distributed in several areas along the Indian coasts and are exploited since a very long time for food or use as bait and in the case of cuttlefish also for their calcareous cuttlebones. Until the middle of this century, squids and cuttlefishes were exploited in conventional fishing gear including some specific gear in a few areas (Rao 1954, 1969, Silas et al 1985, Alagarswami, and Meiyappan 1989). The squids and cuttlefishes were eaten by people in coastal areas or used as bait in hook and line fisheries. Often they were discarded lest they discoloured quality fm fishes and prawns along with which they were got. From 1973 they are caught in steadily increasing quantities mostly in trawl nets operated by mechanised vessels. With the growing demand from export trade, squids and cuttlefishes are collected, cleaned, processed, frozen and exported to several countries profitably. In Japan, Republic of Korea, Spain, Canada and U.S.A. cephalopod fisheries are advanced with modern fishing technology. In this context cephalopod fishing in India and prospects for stepping up production by adoption of specialized gear are of importance and are dealt with in this paper.