Results of exploratory trawl fishing on the continental slope of the south west coast of India by M.F.V. 'Kalava'

Abstract

So far, extensive deep sea trawling, in waters beyond 100 fathom depths, has not been attempted in Indian waters except for occasional hauls taken by the INVESTIGATOR (Alcock, 1891-1900) and other Expedition vessels (Gunther, 1887, Max Weber, 1913. Norman, 1939). During March-May 1963 M.F.V. 'Kalava' of the Indo-Norwegian Project, carried out 9 exploratory cruises off Alleppey and Ponnani on the South West Coast of India at depths ranging between 150 to 205 fathoms (274-374 m.). Large quantities of bathypelagic fish were taken during these cruises, in areas on the continental slope (Fig. 1). 24 species belonging to 23 genera and 19 families have already been described by Tholasilingam et al. (1964). Nearly 82% of the catch was represented by about 11 bathypelagic species taken at the rate of up to 496 kg. per hour of trawl, in the richest grounds. Since such occurrence has not been recorded so far, a quantitative assessment of these bathypelagic fishes along with deep sea prawns, lobsters and squids, has been given in the following paper