Study on the fluctuations in the occurrence of the major tuna live-bait fishes of Minicoy

Minicoy, the southernmost island of the Laccadive Archipelago, is the most important tuna fishing \ncentre in the Indian Union. The fishing industry of the island with special reference to the tuna \nfishery has been comprehensively desc?ibed by Jones and Kumaran (1959). The entire fishery is \na pole and line one for the oceanic skipjack Katsuwonus pelamis (Linnaeus) mainly and the yellowfin \ntuna Neothunnus macropterus (Temminck & Schlegel), using live-bait fishes. The tuna livebait \nfishery of Minicoy has been dealt with in detail by Jones (1958). Appreciable fluctuations \nhave been noticed in the catches in the island from year to year. Even though large shoals may be \navailable for capture in the vicinity of the island, t k gmiktbility of the right kind of bait fishes in \nsufficient quantities throughout the fishing season, may be a factof influencing the catches of a particular \nyear. About forty species of fishes are used by the fishermen of Minicoy as tuna live-bait. \nOf these only ten species show regularity in their occurrence, the rest being specimens entering the \nnets during fishing. The present study reports on the relative abundance of the major species of \nlive-bait fishes of Minicoy.