THE PRESENT STATUS OF 'MAJOR PERCH' FISHERIES IN INDIA

The fisheries belonging to Families Serranidae, Lutjanidae and Lethrinidae are popularly known as Rockcods, \nSnappers and Pig-face breams respectively and are collectively termed as 'Major Perches'. They form about \n12% of the perch catch with an annual landing of 10,336 tonnes constituted by rock-cods (41.3%), snappers (35.4%) \nand pig-face breams (23.3%). Bulk of the catch comes from Tamil Nadu (42,4%), Maharashtra (18.9%) and Kerala \n(14.8%). Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh support respectively 9.5% and 9.3% of the catch. The remaining catch \nis shared by KamatEika, Orissa, Pondicherry and GOBL. Lethrinids do not form appreciable fishery in the northern \nStates and in the southern States there exists a multispecies fishery for all the three major perch groups. Trawl \nnet accounts for 42% of the catch and the rest of the quantity is contributed by 'other mechanised' and \nnonmechanised units equally. The peak fishery season is from October to April. The results of the studies \nparticularly on fisheries and fishing grounds carried out during various exploratory surveys and other cruises \nare discussed in this account.