The perch-fishery by special traps in the area around Mandapam in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay

Abstract

One of the indigenous methods of fishing prevalent in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay is by the employment of traps, known locally by the name ' Koodu'. These traps are primarily intended for catching percoid fishes which abound in localities with hard bottorn formed of rocks and corals characteristic of the inshore waters of the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay. As these areas are shallow, with rocks and corals scattered about, neither shore seines nor gill nets could be operated successfully in most of them, which probably explains the development of perch trapping in this part of the country as an organised fishery. A detailed investigation of the method of fishing and the fishes caught therefrom was undertaken with a view to determining the composition of the catches, the factors affecting the yield per trap and the total yield, the diff"erences in yield from Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay, the sexual maturity, relative weight and food of various species of fishes caught in these traps.