Fishing characteristics of trawling off Mumbai coast of Maharashtra, India

The study deals with the characteristics of fishing activities of commercial trawlers operated in the study area off Mumbai coast of Maharashtra during September 2016 to May 2017. The trawlers from Mumbai coast carried out fishing operations between 200 22’ 50”N to 180 12’20”N latitude and 720 21’ 50”E to 720 52’ 00”E longitude in the depth range between 10 to 70m. The catch by multi-day and single-day trawler was 44.75 kg/ hour and 38.24 kg/ hour respectively. Discards comprised juveniles of commercial species and adults of low market value fishes. Cod end mesh size of trawl net varied from 15 to 30 mm depending on the fishery resources harvested. Average discard by multi-day and single-day trawlers was 10.93 kg/ hour and 4.63 kg/ hour respectively. The study clearly indicated that the beginning and the end of the post-monsoon period had low fishing intensity with a decrease in the catch per hour per trawler along Mumbai coast.