Artificial reefs double income
Artisanal fishermen in Kerala, India, have built artificial reefs to attract fish back into their fishing grounds. As a result incomes have doubled. The fishing grounds off the coast of Kerala had been exhausted by commercial trawling, and the trawls had damaged the natural reefs. Consequently catches suffered so much that most fishermen gave up fishing. At this stage groups of fishermen got together and worked out strategies to recreate productive fishing grounds by building artificial reefs with concrete well- rings, stones coconut fronds and other locally available material. Costs of a typical artificial reef have been about 6000 rupees, but in the first year of operation 100 fishermen caught 10,000 rupees worth of fish. That reef now supports 300 fishermen. Commercial trawling had also exhausted the bait, such as prawns and cuttlefish, which the hook and line fishermen used. Now they have found that any shiny material attracts fish. In fact, the brighter the material the higher the hooking rate, so they are using locally available fibres as lures. Programme for Community Organizahon - PCO Centre - Spencer Junction Trivandrum - Kerala INDIA
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
1989
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/45178 http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jcta24e/ |
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| Summary: | Artisanal fishermen in Kerala, India, have built artificial reefs to attract fish back into their fishing grounds. As a result incomes have doubled.
The fishing grounds off the coast of Kerala had been exhausted by commercial trawling, and the trawls had damaged the natural reefs. Consequently catches suffered so much that most fishermen gave up fishing. At this stage groups of fishermen got together and worked out strategies to recreate productive fishing grounds by building artificial reefs with concrete well- rings, stones coconut fronds and other locally available material.
Costs of a typical artificial reef have been about 6000 rupees, but in the first year of operation 100 fishermen caught 10,000 rupees worth of fish. That reef now supports 300 fishermen.
Commercial trawling had also exhausted the bait, such as prawns and cuttlefish, which the hook and line fishermen used. Now they have found that any shiny material attracts fish. In fact, the brighter the material the higher the hooking rate, so they are using locally available fibres as lures.
Programme for Community Organizahon - PCO Centre - Spencer Junction Trivandrum - Kerala
INDIA |
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