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Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of coastal fisherfolk on climate change - a case study in Chennai, south-east coast of India

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Relation https://eprints.cmfri.org.in/10353/
 
Title Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of coastal fisherfolk on climate
change - a case study in Chennai, south-east coast of India
 
Creator Geetha, R
Vivekanandan, E
Kizhakudan, Joe K
Kizhakudan, Shoba Joe
Chandrasekhar, S
Raja, S
Gupta, K S
 
Subject Climate change
 
Description Climate change will have strong impact on fisheries with far-reaching consequences on food and livelihood of a sizeable
section of the population. The frequency and intensity of extreme climate events is likely to have a major impact on future
marine fisheries production. Fishermen have excellent knowledge on the relationship between climatic, oceanographic
factors and fish catch. This knowledge enables them to switch their fishing activities with respect to species exploited,
location of fishing grounds and gear used. Based on this backdrop, a survey was conducted to collect primary data on
Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) from 200 fishermen in and around Chennai with a structured questionnaire.
Fishermen believed that reduction in fish catch in recent years is essentially due to overfishing (Garrett mean score : 82)
and juvenile exploitation rather than climate change. Fishermen opined that current (62%) and wind direction/speed (28%)
are the major climatic parameters affecting fisheries. Current from south to north direction which generally remains for
nine months off Chennai leads to good fish catch, since it is favourable for larval distribution. They believe that combined
wind blow from south and west leads to coastal upwelling, which occurs during May-June every year for 45 to 55 days.
Current flow from south to north yields more rocky fishes due to turbid water condition and leads to heavy catch. However
in recent years fishermen were not able to predict climatic events like in earlier years due to large unexpected seasonal
variations. Fishermen suggested that government should bring regulations on craft, gear and related aspects in order to
ensure sustainable fishing.
 
Date 2015
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Identifier https://eprints.cmfri.org.in/10353/1/24.pdf
Geetha, R and Vivekanandan, E and Kizhakudan, Joe K and Kizhakudan, Shoba Joe and Chandrasekhar, S and Raja, S and Gupta, K S (2015) Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of coastal fisherfolk on climate change - a case study in Chennai, south-east coast of India. Indian Journal of Fisheries, 62 (1). pp. 144-148.