Assessment of the exploited seerfish stocks in the Indian waters

Abstract

The annual average catch of seerfishes from the lndian seas during 1990-1994 was 31,926 t, which constituted 1.7% of the total marine fish catch in India. Though there was an increasing trend in the seerfish production in the decades upto the 1990's the rate of increase through the successive decades decreased, suggesting the attainment of near optimum level of production. State-wise production showed that during the 1990's Gujarat (22.8%) followed by Maharashtra (16.9%), Kerala (16.2%), Andhrapradesh (14.3%) and Tamilnadu (11.5%) were the dominant seerfish producers. Gearwise production indicated that the gillnet landed 65.1%, trawl 11.5% and hooks and lines 6.9%, while the rest was landed by the boatseines, shoreseines and purseseines. Among the four species, Scomberomorus commerson (55.3%) and S. guttatus (43.9%) sustained the fishery, while S. lineolatus and Acanthocybium solandri formed only a negligible portion of the fishery.