Fishery Oceanographic Conditions off the Coast of Maharashtra

Abstract

The major fishery resouices of Maharashtra being constituted by the primary and secondary carnivores such as Bombay duck, prawns, croakers, pomfrets, ribbon fish, catfish etc., it should be possible to realise nearly twice the present fish catch from the sea off Maharashtra. The fishery of Maharashtra, as elsewhere in the world is influenced by abiotic oceanographic factors suchas temperature, salinity, currents, monsoons, storms, light, dissolved oxygen content, inorganic nutrients like phosphates, nitrates, silicates and biotic factors like phytoplankton, zooplankton and benthos. The waters of Maharashtra are fertile and support high plankton production. The primary productivity of EEZ off Maharashtra amounts to about 60 million tonnes of carbon. The present exploitation of fish from this area is around 0.36 million tonnes only i.e. out of every 167 units of phytoplankton, only one unit is being harvested as fish.