KOCHI: Experts at a seminar here highlighted steps to curb juvenile fishing, which had led to serious erosion of resources. The seminar was organised by the Society of Fisheries Technologists (India) and ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology on Saturday.
A statement issued by the organisers said an estimated 1.2 million tonnes and 0.29 million tonnes of discards remained unreported in small-scale and commercial trawl fisheries respectively in the country. Juvenile catch results in the loss of resources worth millions of dollars annually.
Recent estimates show that landing of low-value by-catch, increased from 14% in 2008 to 25% in 2011. It is learnt that the target catch formed only 25% to 30% in shrimp trawls, and the rest is either discarded or bought to the shore for sale. The discarded catch includes juveniles of commercially important fish species.
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Breaking rules on mesh sizes and non-compliance with spatial restrictions are behind destructive fishing.
The seminar also highlighted success stories on the implementation of minimum legal size for fish landings in the State. Fisheries Director S. Kathikeyan inaugurated the seminar.
A total of six papers were presented during the seminar, and they covered the status of marine resources; biodiversity issues in capture fisheries; by-catch issues in hilsa fishery; legislation to control juvenile incidence; case studies on implementation of minimum legal mesh size in the State, and gear-based technical measures to reduce juvenile catch.
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