Trawl fishery of South Kanara with special reference to prawns and by-catches

An appraisal of the trawl fishery based on the data collected from Mangalore and Malpe during the fishing seasons 1980-81 and 1981-82 were attempted.The prawns alone contributed around 70-75% of the total value realised,although it formed only 13% of the annual average trawl catch. The landings of the important groups like Prawns, Fishes, Stomatopods, Crabs, Cephalopods by trawl nets at Mangalore and Malpe were compared. Among different species of prawns,P.stiilifera and M.dobsoni were the dominant species contributing around 80-85% of the annual prawn catch. Landings were generally high during September and January- May at both the centres.By-catches in trawls includes fishes,cephalopods,crabs and stomatopods.The main species according to its availability and importance landings were studied and explained.In fish species species, Silver bellies, are dominant ,contributing to 31.2% and 24.5% at Mangalore and Malpe respectively. The average auctioning rates of different category of prawns at Mangalore were also discussed.