Resurgence of whitefish in trawl landings of Mangalore

Abstract

Lactarius lactarius, commonly known as false trevally is exploited mainly by trawlers from the inshore waters (5-30 m depth) along the Karnataka coast. Bottom-set gillnets and purseseines also land minor quantities of whitefish, besides the indigenous gears operated during monsoon. The average annual production of false travelly from multiday trawls operated along Mangalore coast remained at 416 t during the period from 2000 to 2002. A declining trend in the fishery was noticed since the year 2000 consequent to reduction in catch rates and the production reached an all-time low of 117 t in 2004. Thereafter, the catch rates in multiday trawl improved significantly from 0.09 kgh–1 in 2004 to an annual average of 0.33 kgh–1 in 2008 (Fig. 1). During the year, 50% of the annual whitefish landing was observed in October- November months, when the catch rates increased from 0.6 to 0.8 kgh–1.