COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ENCIRCLING GILL NETS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RATNAGIRI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA

摘要

Gill net is the most widely used fishing implement in the country for capturing pelagic as well as column fishes. In Ratnagiri, during operation of encircling type of gillnet, the net is set so as to encircle the shoals of pelagic fishes like sardineand mackerel. After the fish shoal has been encircled by the net, noise and other means are used to induce the fishes to gill themselves in the webbing. The encircling gillnets were fabricated with poly amide (PA) monofilament having diameter 0.23 mm, mesh size ranging between 45 to 60 mm and hanging coefficient varying from 0.40 to 0.54. In encircling gill nets having 45 mm mesh size, sardine was observed to be a major catch, while 56 mm mesh size gill nets were found to be normally used for catching mackerel. The hung depth of the encircling gill nets varied from 8.28 to 17.62 m, wherein 200 or 300 number of meshes were present in depth. The depth of operation for this type of net ranged from 18 to 28 m, in which the net almost touched the sea bottomduring its operation. Motorized and mechanized fishing vessels were used to conduct encircling gill net operation, manually, with the help of 4 to 8 crew members.