Chank fishing of Kerala with special reference to long line fishery

Abstract

The important chank beds are located in the Gulf of Kutch and Trivandrum in the west coast and in Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar in the east coast. The chank fishery in the west coast of India is quite insignificant compared to the east coast. But in recent years a spurt in tiie landings has been witnessed with catches being brought in by different fishing tackles. Conventional diving was considered as the most important method of fishing. The major component of chanks landed in Kerala at present is constituted by trawl and longline catches. In this context it is worthwhile to mention that the longline fishing method shows great potential for fishing out chanks from deeper waters which remained untapped due to limitations in skin diving exploitation. The introduction of 'SCUBA' diving might help to exploit the beds lying within 15 fathoms limit. Trawling and longline can be successfully employed in deeper waters. A proper assessment of the chank resources of the different areas is very essential. There is ample scope for large scale development of longline fishery.