Exploratory trawling off Goa by the government of India fishing vessels

Abstract

The fish catch data of the Government of India vessels M. T. Kalyani IV and M. T. Kalyani V trawling off Goa during November - December 1967 and March - April 1968 have been analysed and the area and depth-wise distribution of the fishes is presented in the paper, along with an estimate of potential yield by employing the "sweep method". Altogether 25 sub-areas under major areas 15-73 and 16-73, between lat. 15°Nand 16"'30 'N were fished. For a fishing effort of 347.58 hours, 175, 446 kg of fish were netted at a catch rate of 504.76 kg/hr. Most of the sub-areas have given an average over 350 kg/hr up to a maximum of 821.67 kg/hr. Sub-areas 15-73/2E, 3D, 4A, 4C, 4E, 6C, 6D, 16-73/lB, 2B and 3B are considered very productive in the region. About 80% of the catches was constituted by small sciaenids (52.79%), catfishes (14.91%) and elasmobranchs (12.55%). Quality fishes Lactarius and pomfrets constituted 7.82% and 1.69% respectively and prawns formed 1.43% of the catches. The bulk of the catches (55 %) came from 21-40 m depth zone. The catch/hour returns were very high in 31-40 m. A second peak at 61-70 m for total fish was also noticed. The potential sustainable annual yield for the shelf area between 15''N and 16°30'N has been estimated at 28,535 tonnes which indicates a good scope for an increase in the fishing effort.