Fishery and biology of Tomato hind, Cephalopholis sonnerati at Chennai

Gomathy, S and Kizhakudan, Shoba Joe and Raja Sekar, R and Prabhakaran, K (2025) Fishery and biology of Tomato hind, Cephalopholis sonnerati at Chennai. Marine Fisheries Information Service; Technical and Extension Series (263). p. 31. ISSN 0254-380X

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Abstract

The groupers form regular fishery in Chennai, comprising 2% to 3% of the perches landed in Kasimedu Landing Centre. They are landed by hooks and line, gillnets and trawl nets. The mechanised trawler fleet (multiday thangal trawlers) operated from Pudupattinam in the south to Nizampattinam in the north at 10-100 m depth to a distance of 50-60 km from the shore is a significant contributor. Sixteen species of groupers were recorded from Kasimedu landing centre, namely, Cephalopholis formosa, C. sonnerati, Epinephelus areolatus, E. bleekeri, E. chlorostigma, E. coioides, E. epistictus, E. faveatus, E. heniochus, E. latifasciatus, E. longispinis, E. malabaricus, E. polyphekadion, E. radiatus, E. stictus and E. undulosus. The head of large groupers are kept in baskets and sold separately in the market. The Cephalopholis sonnerati, commonly known as Tomato hind or Tomato rock cod forms regular fishery at Kasimedu Fisheries Harbour, Chennai. Locally called ‘thakkali kalava’ or ‘sivappu kalava’, Cephalopholis sonnerati was first formally described as Serranus sonnerati in 1828 by French zoologist Achille Valenciennes (1794-1864) with the type locality given as Puducherry in India. (https://www.inaturalist.org/ taxa/97004-Cephalopholis-sonnerati)

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