Exploited resources of major perches in India

The present paper reviews the studies on the exploited resources \nof mqjor perches from, the Indian seas. Major perches consist \nof fairly large sized fishes belonging to families Serranidae, \nLutjanidae and Lethrinidae, popularly known as rock \ncods,snappers and pigface breams respectively. They form 17% of \nthe total perch catch. The average annual production of major \nperches in the country during 1990-98 is estimated as 23,800t. \nThe highest landing of major perches is from the state ofTamilnadu \n(49.5%), followed by Kerala (19.74%). They inhabit the rocky and \ncoralline grounds of/" the south west and south east coasts and \nthe Wadge Bank and also in the rocky grounds off Gujarat and \nMaharashtra . Along the south west and south east coasts, the \npeak fishing season is from December to April. This resource \ncould be exploited more efficiently by hooks and lines as well as \nthe traps rather than trawl nets, as the grounds are often not \ntrawlable.