On the cat-fish resources of the coasts of andhra pradesh,Orissa and West Bengal

Cat-fishes form 3-11% of the annual fish eatches on the north.east coast of India (comprising the coasts of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal). The commercial cat-fish fishery is confined to grounds < 50 m. deep, the important fishing units being boat-seines with catamarans and hooks and lines with catEmarans. The important species represented in the fishery are Tachysurus thalassinus (Riipp.) and T. tenuispinis (Day). The fishery has three peaks in a year, in March, May-June and September-October. In exploratory bottom trawling undertaken up to 100 m. in the area between Kakinada and Sand Heads from 1964 to 1967, catfishes formed 28% of the catches. T. thalassinus comprised 38-2% and T. thenuispinis 60-7% of the catfish catches. On an annual average, T. thalassinus is more abundant in the zones around 17° 40' and 19° 40' N Lat., and T. tenuispinis in the zones around 17° 40' and 19° 10' N Lat., than in others. Each species has three periods of peak abundance in a year, falling in February-April, May-July and October-December (that is, roughly in the same periods as in the inshore fishery). T. thalassinus of the size-range 6-80 cm. and T. tenuispinis of the size-range 6-60 cm. are landed commercially; the exploratory trawl catches consisted mostly of 12-55 cm. of the former and 12-45 cm. of the latter species. It is estimated that in commercial trawling with Visakhapatnam as the base, a 25 m. side-trawler with 15 m. trawl should be able to land a minimum of 53-82 m. tons, a 14 m. stem-trawler with a 14 m otler trawl a minimum of 14-37 m. tons, and a 13-7 m. stern-trawler with 12 m. otter trawl, a n-iinimim of 12-20 m. tons of cat-fishes per year from the area. The expected catches of the two species are also estimated. It is also shown that the average expected catch per day, of all cat-fishes, of the smallest of the trawleis considered would be about 3 times that realised by non-powered boats in the commercial fishery at present.