Fishery and bionomics of tunas at Vizhinjam

Abstract

Vizhinjam (76°59'E, 8°22'N) is an important fish landing centre owing mainly to its location which affords facilities for operation of boats even during the monsoon season and accessibility to the nearby markets. With the Fisheries Harbour construction underway, the fisheries importance of this area is bound to increase further. Details of common nets employed in the centre and the modes of their operations were described earlier by Nayar (1958), Bennet (1967) and Luther et al. (1982). Rao (1964) described the ripe ovaries of some Indian tunas from Vizhinjam and summarised that E. affinis, A. thazard and S. orientalis spawn in the local waters from April to September and possibly in other months of the year. According to him, the spawn ripe individuals of the above three species indicate the existence of an important spawning ground for them off Vizhinjam.