Coastal Aquaculture and Mariculture

Unit 6- Crustaceans

6.5.1. Species composition and Production
Species Composition
Squilla sp., Hemisquilla sp., Nannosquilla sp. and Otrattasquilla sp. are the most common stomatopod species occuring in India. Otrattasquilla nepa is the species that contributes to most of the catch.
Production
There is no fishery targeting stomatopods in India. They are caught incidentally with penaeid shrimps and fishes as bycatch throughout the tropics. They are landed in almost all the maritime states of India. The maximum catch recorded so far have been 1, 00,000 tonnes. They contribute about 18% to the total crustacean landings. Due to lack of ready market, most of the stomatopods are now thrown back into the sea and that way the catch potential is very large.