A assessment of the fishery resources for non-penaeid prawns in India

Prawns other than penaeids account for an average annual production of nearly 34 thousand tonnes, not including the production figures of biackisb water palaemonid prawns from the various lakes and backwaters along the coastline. In the total marine prawn fishery of tht different zones of the Indian coast the non-penaeids average to 47-9%. Nearly 90% of these catches come from the Maharashtra and Gujarat coast. The species which are most abundant are Acetes indicus, Palaemon tenuipes, Palaemon styliferus and Hippolysmata ensirostris. The distribution of these and other species are given in detail and the magnitude of their fishery in different areas depicted. An estimate of the population of these prawns along the Maharashtra coast is made by the fishing success method in order to study the trend of present production and the rate of exploitation. Mention is made about the commercial potentialities of the recent finding of pandalid prawns in the deeper waters off Kerala.