Ribbonfishes

Nair, P N Radhakrishnan and Prakasan, D (2003) Ribbonfishes. In: Status of Exploited Marine Fishery Resources of India. CMFRI, Cochin, pp. 76-87. ISBN 81-901219-3-6

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Abstract

The ribbonfishes, also known as hair-tail or cutlass, form a major and abundant fishery resource among the marine pelagic finfishes of the Indian seas. They belong to the family Trichiuridae and are characterised by elongate, compressed and ribbon-like body; prominent canine-like teeth; lack of caudal fin and the silvery colouration. They are essentially marine, but occur in the estuaries too. They have a distribution in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions and in India they are distributed all along the coast with abundance in the northwest and central east coasts. In India, three decades ago, they were low priced fishes and hence were preferred by the poor. Large fishes were consumed fresh and transported even to the interior markets, but the smaller ones, in excess of the local requirements, were usually sun-dried on the beach. Later the marketing scenario of ribbonfishes underwent a drastic change when it gained a position in the export market. Currently large quantities of ribbonfishes are exported in the frozen form to China, Japan and other southeast Asian countries. During the year 1999- 2000 (April-March), frozen ribbonfishes contributed up to 18% to the total marine products export of India and among the exported frozen finfish products its share was 48%. In the subsequent year (2000-01) its contribution almost doubled forming 30% and 63% respectively.

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