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Marine Fisheries of Andhra Pradesh-An Appraisal
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several folds in the coming years. In the demersal
group, croakers formed the dominant group (4.5%)
followed by perches (3.7%), silverbellies, catfish and
rays (2.2% each). Crustaceans were dominanted by
the penaeid prawns (9.9%) followed by crabs (2.8%)
and non-penaeid prawns (1.4%). Prawns have always
been the mainstay of the Andhra marine fishery and
are the major revenue earner for the state. Of late
however, the catch of pelagic fishes like sardine and
mackerel have increased but prawns still continue to
be major revenue earner in the marine fisheries
sector. The contribution of the important resources
to the total fish catch (all gears combined) of Andhra
Pradesh during 2000 to 2006 is given in Fig.6. Among
these, the catch of pelagic fishes viz., sardines,
mackerel and ribbonfish exhibited high annual
fluctuations compared to the demersal resources.
Others
1%
Crustaceans
14%
Fishes
85%
Fig. 5. Contribution of major groups to the marine
fishery of Andhra Pradesh
However, the increased landings of all major
resources resulted in better annual catch during 2006
(Fig.3).
Mode of exploitation
The crafts used for fishing include the large and
medium mechanized trawlers (Plate 1) and a number
of traditional crafts viz. catamaran (tepalu), masula
boat and the nava (Plate 2). Technological
advancement in craft construction include the
introduction of steel bodies for larger crafts and
fibregalss slowly replacing the wood in the smaller
traditional crafts. The details of different crafts
operating along Andhra Pradesh have been
discussed in detail by Sreekrishna (2002). A variety
of gears are employed to harvest the rich coastal as
well as offshore marine fishery resources of the state.
The gears in use range from simple cast nets to large
seines and trawls. The line fishing for coastal, offshore
and oceanic fishes is very active in Andhra Pradesh.
They are operated either from small traditional nonmecahnized
crafts, motorized crafts or from medium
to large mechanized crafts depending on the area of
operation, resource targeted and price of the fish.
During 2001-06, the mechanized, motorized and nonmechanized
sectors contributed on an average, 42.1,
23.3 and 34.6% respectively to the total marine fish
landings of the state (Fig.7). While the mechanized
sector showed an increasing trend, non-mechanized
sector registered a declining trend. The trend by
motorized sector remained more or less the same
over the years. Motorization is slowly becoming
popular and more and more non-mechanized units
Sardines
Ribbonfish
Mackerel
Carangids
Penaeid prawns
Elasmobranchs
Croakers
catch in tonnes
Percent
Mechanized
Motorized
Non-mechanized
Year
Fig. 6. Major resources contributing to the fishery
of Andhra Pradesh
Year
Fig. 7. Contribution of different sectors to the fishery and
their trends during 2000-2006