Coastal Aquaculture and Mariculture

Unit 4 - Indian marine capture fisheries

4.4. Fishing crafts and gears
The mechanized sector accounted for 67.9%, motorised sector 25% and artisanal sector 7.1% of the total marine fish production during 2003. Motorisation of traditional crafts commenced during 1970's with plank built boats in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu followed by dug-out canoes and catamarans fixed with out board motors in Kerala. The following table shows the details of the state-wise fishing crafts.

* Total includes 810 FRP Catamarans and 135 Beach Landing Crafts

The principal traditional fishing gears operated is cast net, beach seine (shore seine), bag net, boat seine, gill net, trap, hook and line and other gears to suit the local conditions. Modern fishing gears operated are shrimp trawl, bottom trawl, large gill net, purse seine and mid-water trawl. In addition to this, unconventional methods such as electrofishing, light fishing, fish finders, echo-sounders are also used. Besides, a number of other methods such as spearing, harpooning, roping etc. are used to capture fish in certain areas. Perch traps used in Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay area are made with bamboo material and are used for trapping perches. Of the different gears, drift and set gill nets and bag nets of varied mesh size are widely used along the east and west coasts while ring seines, purse seines and mechanized gill nets are confined whereby to the southwest coast.