Further Exploratory Fishing for Large Pelagic Species in South Indian Waters - BOBP/WP/91

Despite the substantial increase in the traditional fishing fleet of small craft in Tamil Nadu, India, production has remained more or less constant in the last few years, indicating that fisheries resources within the range of this fleet have been fully exploited. From the Sixties, however, introduced small fishing craft in neighbouring Shri Lanka have been operating in deep sea waters and reporting good catches of large pelagic species, particularly shark. Although Tamil Naduis geographicall y well placed for the exploitation of these resources, the potential has not been realized. In order to introduce fishing for large pelagic species in Tamil Nadu by demonstrating the experience in Shri Lanka, a subproject for fishing demonstrations was established in 1989. The executing agency was the Tamil Nadu Department of Fisheries with technical and financial support from the Bay of Bengal Programme (BOBP), which had played a part in this development in Shri Lanka. Two 10 m FRP boats (S RL-15) tested in Shri Lanka’s commercial off shore fisheries were selected for exploratory fishing trials from Chinnamuttam fishing harbour near Cape Comorin and Royapuram fishing harbour in Madras. Results and conclusions of the Chinnamuttam and Madras trials are reported in this paper. Craft and gear details, as well as earlier trials at Chinnamuttam, have already been reported in greater detail in BOBP/WP/81 — Exploratory Fishing for Large Pelagic Species in South Indian Waters.