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Abstract:
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Reducing fishing pressure in coastal waters is the need of the day in
the Indian marine fisheries sector of the country which is fast changing from a
mere vocational activity to a capital intensive industry. It requires continuous
monitoring of the resource exploitation through a scientifically acceptable
methodology, data on production of each species stock, the number and
characteristics of the fishing gears of the fleet, various biological
characteristics of each stock, the impact of fishing on the environment and the
role of fishery—independent on availability and abundance. Besides this, there
are issues relating to capabilities in stock assessment, taxonomy research,
biodiversity, conservation and fisheries management. Generation of reliable
data base over a fixed time frame, their analysis and interpretation are
necessary before drawing conclusions on the stock size, maximum
sustainable yield, maximum economic yield and to further implement various
fishing regulatory measures. India being a signatory to several treaties and
conventions, is obliged to carry out assessments of the exploited stocks and
manage them at sustainable levels. Besides, the nation is bound by its
obligation of protein food security to people and livelihood security to those
engaged in marine fishing related activities. Also, there are regional
variabilities in fishing technology and fishery resources. All these make it
mandatory for India to continue and strengthen its marine capture fisheries
research in general and deep sea fisheries in particular. Against this
background, an attempt is made to strengthen the deep sea fish biodiversity
and also to generate data on the distribution, abundance, catch per unit effort
of fishery resources available beyond 200 m in the EEZ of southwest coast ofIndia and also unravel some of the aspects of life history traits of potentially
important non conventional fish species inhabiting in the depth beyond 200 m.
This study was carried out as part of the Project on Stock Assessment
and Biology of Deep Sea Fishes of Indian EEZ (MoES, Govt. of India). |