Marine fish landings in Andhra Pradesh during 2016 - An overview

Abstract

Andhra Pradesh with a coastline of 974 km, and nine coastal districts has 1.63 lakh marine fishermen families residing in the 555 marine fishing villages (Marine Fisheries Census 2010) who depend on fishing either directly or through allied activities for their livelihood. The state is cyclone prone and during the past decade, cyclones have severely affected the state’s fisheries sector. The marine fish landings was 1.92 lakh tonnes (t) in the year 2016, which was 35% less than that of the previous year. The drastic reduction in the landings of the state may be attributed to reduction in fishing operations during the months of September, October and November due to cyclone warnings. Among the coastal districts, East Godavari contributed the highest (33%) to total marine fish landings of the state, followed by Visakhapatnam (22%) and Srikakulam (11%). In spite of decline in the catch contributions from a few landing centres like Bhairavpalem,