Cephalopod fishery of Visakhapatnam - trend and present status

Andhra Pradesh contributes nearly 8% to the \ntotal marine fish production of India. The cephalopods \ncontribute a little over 1% to the total marine fish \nlandings of Andhra Pradesh. In Andhra Pradesh, \ncephalopods are landed by large trawlers (12-14 m, \n98/110 HP), known as sona boats and smaller \ntrawlers (9.5-10 m, 68/90 HP). Total cephalopods \nlanded during the period 2000-2010 was 23629 t and \nthe total effort was 37399153. Cephalopod \nproduction increased from 1011 t in 2000 to over 2300 \nt in 2002. Thereafter there was a declining trend up \nto 2006. In 2006-2007, the production increased to \nover 2500 t. In 2008, there was a drastic decline. \nHowever, there has been an increasing trend in \nproduction in 2009-2010 (Fig. 1). Cephalopods \ncontributed 0.53% in 2000 and 1.6% in 2010, to the \ntotal marine fish landings of Andhra Pradesh \n(Fig. 1). The annual average cephalopod production \nfor the period was 2148 t, forming an average 1.04% \nof the total marine fish landings in Andhra Pradesh.