Increased availability of small fish has led to significant increase in landing of tuna between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada coasts offering a rich harvest to traditional fishermen.
Though considered unusual as tuna season which begins in October and ends in February and sometimes extends over early April has concluded, the latest phenomena has generated a lot of curiosity in the seafood industry. Incidentally, the annual fishing ban is being observed on the East Coast from April 15 for 61 days.
Domestic consumption
As the ban is not applicable to traditional fishermen, they are able to catch large number of tuna most sought-after in Kerala and Tamil Naidu for domestic consumption and exports to Japan, United States and Sri Lanka, without much effort.
Catamaran and other traditional crafts are exempted from the ban.
Pudimadaka, about 50 km from here, and the Fishing Harbour in the city have emerged as the landing centres for tuna with these places turning into beehive of activity with agents buying them for export to Kerala and Tamil Nadu for past few days. A kilo of tuna fetches fishermen around Rs. 250 per kg. However, if the white meat is processed properly and exported without bloodstains, it will fetch double the amount.
“The phenomena, which is not common, could be due to formation of rich algae, an important feature of marine ecosystem attracting tuna, a highly migratory species to move towards Visakhapatnam and Kakinada in search of small fish,” Association of Indian Fishery Industries president Y.G.K. Murti told The Hindu on Tuesday.
Tuna is not found when seawater temperatures rise. Tuna’s migratory pattern has baffled marine scientists. Efforts to study the migratory behaviour in 2011 and 2014 by tagging them did not yield desired results.
A recent study by India National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) confirmed that green algae leads to increase in numbers of small fish thereby attracting large number of tuna towards it.
Chlorosis pigmentation
“The phenomena witnessed between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada coasts could be due to chlorosis pigmentation and marine micro algae. This might increase the number of small fish attracting more number of tuna in search of food,” said P. Hanumantha Rao, State Coordinator, Network for Fish Quality Management & Sustainable Fishing (NETFISH).
He said NETFISH, a society under Marine Product Export Development Authority, had launched a sustained campaign following which 25 per cent of mechanised boat operators had shifted to tuna-fishing through gillnets instead of taking recourse to catching shrimp through trawl-nets (bottom-trawling). Bottom-trawling leads to juvenile fishing even if they are not targeted by the fishing boats.
Traditional fishermen net big catch
