Catch Composition of Trawl landings along Mumbai coast; Maharashtra

摘要

Globally, marine fishery resources are under enormous pressure with the estimated fishing effort exceeding the optimum by a factor of three to four (Pauly et al., 2002). The economic losses due to excess fishing effort have been estimated to be 50 billion USD annually (World Bank, 2009). FAO estimated 52% of global fish stocks as fully exploited, 28% overexploited or depleted, 20% moderately exploited, and only 1% showing signs of recovery as a result of the consequences of fishing, since 1970 (FAO,2009). Maharashtra with a coastline of 720 km is one of the leading states in India in marine fish production. Major fish landing centres are New Ferry Wharf, Sassoon Dock and Versova, situated in Greater Mumbai (GRM) and they account for nearly 60% of the state fish landings (Annam & Agustine, 2005; Mane & Sundaram, 2011). Trawlers and purse seiners land large quantity of bycatch (60-65%) comprising juveniles, undersized fishes and inedible biota which is discarded at sea and mostly goes unreported. The marine fishery in Maharashtra has been facing crisis since late nineties owing to overfishing, urbanization, domestic and industrial pollution and habitat degradation (Deshmukh, 2013).