Coastal Aquaculture and Mariculture

Unit 6- Crustaceans

6.1.1. Production trend
Landings of penaeid shrimps showed about six fold increase from 32,000 t to 1, 69, 741 t during 1960-2006. The increase is mainly due to intense trawling operation in inshore waters, increase in effort, extension of trawling to deeper waters, introduction of multiday fishing operations, night trawling and introduction of innovative gears in the artisanal sector. About three fourth of the catch is harvested along the west coast and the rest is from the east coast. Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are the important contributors to penaeid landings in the order of abundance.
Recent production

Mode of exploitation
Trawl net is the principal gear used for the exploitation of penaeid shrimps. Trawlers contribute to about 80% of penaeid landing of India. Smaller varieties of penaeids are caught by dol nets along northwest coast. Ring seines are operated along Kerala-Karnataka coast during monsoon for larger varieties of penaeids. Mini trawls are operated from Murivalloms along Kerala coast for penaeid shrimps in near shore waters (3-8 depth). Thalluvalai, a net like a two seam shrimp trawl without otter boards is operated from flat bottomed wooden palnk-built sail boats along Tuticorin-Mandapam region to catch juvenile prawns in nearshore waters (3 -4 m depth). Trammel nets along Vizhinjam - Manakudy region; bottom set gill nets and disco nets along east coast are the other gears operated in coastal waters to exploit penaeid shrimps. Stake nets are used to exploit juvenile shrimps along both the east and west coasts.