The flat fish resources of the west coast of India

Among the marine fishery resources of India, the flat fishes occupy a place of some importance, especially \nalong the West Coast. Among these, however, the only species that has been contributing to a sizable and \nregular fishery is Cynoglossus semifasciatus Day. The best fishery is restricted to the NorthKerala and South \nMysore coasts. This paper gives a brief account of the past and some recent trends in this fishery with a \nparticular reference to Calicut on the Malabar coast. \nThe common nets used in the sole fishery at Calicut are the boat-seine (Paithuvala) and the cast net. In \nrecent years mechanised boats have started fishing by small trawl nets in the area and it has been found \nthat during 1966-67 and 1967-68 the off-season catches have been more than catches of the normal season, \nthe difference being particularly marked in 1967-68 which accounted for a good annual total catch. A large \npercentage of the off-season catch consisted of juveniles. The extent to which this would affect the regular \nfishery remains to be studied.