The Prawn fishery of the South Kanara coast with emphasis on the unusual catches of Metapenaeus dobsoni by purse seines and trawls during the first half of September, 1983

Abstract

The commencement of the 1983-'84 fishing season witnessed bumper catches of prawns (Metapenaeus dobsoni), particularly in purse seines, breaking all previous records. The unprecedented catch of prawns in purse seines might possibly be due to the fact that the resource of M.dobsoni was found to be very close to the shore. Moreover, the behavioural pattern of females to come off the bottom for spawning and remain in the column waters for considerable amount of time as they were fully exhausted. The huge size of the purse seine nets helped to encircle large areas and fish the 'accumulated stock' resulted out of the closed season (June-August) due to monsoon might have helped the mechanised fishery, particularly purse seiners, to exploit them heavily. Although there has been wide fluctuations in the catch of M. dobsoni in September, during various seasons, the present studies indicated that the intensive fishing during September may not lead to any conservatory problems. These prawns have already reached their maximum size (prawns larger than the presently reported ones have not been recorded any time in the fishery) and hence in the fag end of their life.