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CAPTURE OF FISHERIES
Key words: Aquaculture, Seafood, Inland resources
Fig – 8.
INTRODUCTION
Aquaculture has been defined in many ways. It has been called as the rearing of aquatic organisms under controlled or semi controlled condition - thus it is underwater agriculture. The other definition of aquaculture is the art of cultivating the natural produce of water, the raising or fattening of fish in enclosed ponds. Another one is simply the large-scale husbandry or rearing of aquatic organisms for commercial purposes. Aquaculture can be a potential means of reducing over need to import fishery products, it can mean an increased number of jobs, enhanced sport and commercial fishing and a reliable source of protein for the future.
Fish is a rich source of animal protein and its culture is an efficient protein food production system from aquatic environment. The main role of fish culture is its contribution in improving the nutritional standards of the people. Fish culture also helps in utilising water and land resources. It provides inducement to establish other subsidiary industries in the country.
Fisheries can be categorised into two types - fin fisheries and non-fin fisheries. The former is fisheries of true fishes, whereas the latter is the fisheries of organisms other than true fish like prawn, crab, lobster, mussel, oyster, sea cucumbers, frog, sea weeds, etc.
Fin fisheries can be further categorized into two types – capture fisheries and culture fisheries.
Capture fisheries is exploitation of aquatic organisms without stocking the seed. Recruitment of the species occurs naturally. This is carried out in the sea, rivers, reservoirs, etc. Fish yield decreases gradually in capture fisheries due to indiscriminate catching of fish including brooders and juveniles. Overfishing destroys the fish stocks. Pollution and environmental factors influence the fish yield. The catches include both desirable and undesirable varieties.
A culture fishery is the cultivation of selected fishes in confined areas with utmost care to get maximum yield. The seed is stocked, nursed and reared in confined waters, then the crop is harvested. Culture takes place in ponds, which are fertilized and supplementary feeds are provided to fish to get maximum yield. In order to overcome the problems found in capture fisheries to increase the production, considerable attention is being given to the culture fisheries.
Culture fisheries are conducted in freshwater, brackish water and sea waters. With the development and expansion of new culture systems, farming of a wide variety of aquatic organisms like prawns, crabs, molluscs, frogs, sea weeds, etc. have come under culture fisheries. Due to the culture of a variety of aquatic organisms, culture fisheries has been termed as aquaculture.
Capture fisheries is intended for catching fishes and also prawns, lobsters, crabs, sea-cucumbers, whales, pearl oysters, edible bivalve and copious other organisms of other than fishes etc. Primitive human beings were acquainted with capture fishery centuries passed for him to observe and understand for the possibilities of culturing fish. Then also he depended mostly on the culture of fishes with parental care. Later, he tried to collect the fingerlings in canals, distribution canals. In the earlier days, the mixture of carnivore fish fingerlings and carp fish fingerlings were stocked together in tanks. Later, they were segregated and stocked selecting the required variety.
Capture of fishes can be broadly divided in to two types;
a) Capture by Human effort b) Capture by observing the behavioural pattern of Fishes.
Inland capture fishery of India has an important place; it contributes to about 30% of the total fish production. The large network of inland water masses will continue to provide great potential, for economic capture fishery which consequently will compete well with fast growing fish-culture practices. The freshwater inland water bodies fall into five major categories, distinguished as the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and the Indus system of the Northern India, and the East and the West coast river systems of the Southern (peninsular) India. These river systems have certain characteristics of their own with respect to their ecology, climatic conditions and fish populations of commercial food fishes. Besides, there are a number of land-locked lakes
Fig – 8.
India is endowed with vast and varied aquatic resources (marine and Inland) amenable for capture fisheries and aquaculture. While the marine water bodies are used mainly for capture fisheries resources, the inland water bodies are widely used both for culture and capture fisheries. Inland capture fisheries of India have an important place; it contributes to about 30% of the total fish production. The large network of inland water masses provides great potential for economic capture fishery. Most of the inland water bodies are captive ecosystems where intensive human intervention in the biological production process can be possible and thereby holding enormous potential for many fold increase in fish output. Inland water bodies include freshwater bodies like rivers, canals, streams, lakes, flood plain wetlands or beels (ox-bow lakes, back swamps, etc.), reservoirs, ponds, tanks and other derelict water bodies, and brackish water areas like estuaries and associated coastal ponds, lagoons (Chilka lake, Pulicat lake) and backwaters (Vembanad backwaters), wetlands (bheries), mangrove swamps, etc., The inland water resources available in India are given in Table-3.1.
Table-8.1. Inland water resources in India
Resource Extent Type of fisheries
a. Rivers 29,000km capture fisheries b. Canals & streams 1,42,000km capture fisheries c. Lakes 0.72m ha capture fisheries d. Reservoirs 3.152m ha Large 1,140,268 ha capture fisheries Medium 527,541 ha capture fisheries Small 1,485,557 ha capture-based fisheries e. Ponds & tanks 2.85 m ha Culture fisheries f. Flood plain wetlands 202,213 ha culture-based fisheries
(Beels / Ox-bow lakes) g. Swamps and Derelict waters 53,471 ha Nil (not known) h. Upland lakes 720,000 ha Not known i. Brackish water 2.7 m ha Estuaries 300,000 ha capture fisheries Back waters 48,000 ha capture fisheries Lagoons 140,000 ha capture fisheries Wetlands (Bheries) 42,600 ha capture fisheries Mangroves 356,000 ha subsistence Coastal lands for aquaculture 1.42, m ha capture fisheries
Of these, the rivers, canals, streams, lakes, large and medium reservoirs, estuaries, and associated backwaters and lagoons support the capture fisheries. Whereas freshwater ponds, tanks, swamps and estuarine wetlands (bheries), paddy fields, small shallow coastal lagoons and coastal pond farms support the culture fisheries or aquaculture.
Fig – 8.
Marine Capture Fisheries
The capture marine fishery resource of India comprises of a long coastline (8118 kms.) and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (2.025 sq. kms). Marine capture fisheries play a vital role in India’s economy, providing employment and income to nearly two million people. The marine fishing fleet is estimated to be 280491 nos., consisting of traditional crafts (181284 nos.), motorized traditional craft (44578 nos.) and mechanized boats (53684 nos.). In the total marine fish production, the share of traditional, motorized and mechanized sector is estimated at 9%, 26% and 65% respectively.
Culture-based fishery is the most common method of enhancing the fish production being followed in some inland water-bodies in India.
Seafood Watch:
Seafood Watch defines sustainable seafood as originating from sources, whether fished or farmed that can maintain or increase production in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or function of affected ecosystems.
The following guiding principles illustrate the qualities that capture fisheries must possess to be considered sustainable by the Seafood Watch program. Species from sustainable capture fisheries:
Have a low vulnerability to fishing pressure, and hence a low probability of being overfished, because of their inherent life history characteristics; Have stock structure and abundance sufficient to maintain or enhance long-term fishery productivity: Are captured using techniques that minimize the catch of unwanted and/or unmarketable species; Are captured in ways that maintain natural functional relationships among species in the ecosystem, conserves the diversity and productivity of the surrounding ecosystem, and do not result in irreversible ecosystem state changes; and Have a management regime that implements and enforces all local, national and international laws and utilizes a precautionary approach to ensure the long-term productivity of the resource and integrity of the ecosystem.
Seafood Watch has developed a set of five sustainability criteria, corresponding to these guiding principles, to evaluate capture fisheries for the purpose of developing a seafood recommendation for consumers and businesses. These criteria are:
- Inherent vulnerability to fishing pressure
- Status of wild stocks
- Nature and extent of discarded bycatch
- Effect of fishing practices on habitats and ecosystems
- Effectiveness of the management regime
Each criterion includes:
- Primary factors to evaluate and rank
- Secondary factors to evaluate and rank
- Evaluation guidelines2 to synthesize these factors
- A resulting rank for that criterion
Once a rank has been assigned to each criterion, an overall seafood recommendation for the species in question is developed based on additional evaluation guidelines. The ranks for each criterion, and the resulting overall seafood recommendation, are summarized in a table. Criterion
ranks and the overall seafood recommendation are color-coded to correspond to the categories of the Seafood Watch pocket guide:
1 “Fish” is used throughout this document to refer to finfish, shellfish and other wild-caught invertebrates.
2 Evaluation Guidelines throughout this document reflect common combinations of primary and secondary factors that result in a given level of conservation concern. Not all possible combinations are shown – other combinations should be matched as closely as possible to the existing guidelines.
Best Choices/Green : Consumers are strongly encouraged to purchase seafood in this category. The wild-caught species is sustainable as defined by Seafood Watch.
Good Alternatives/Yellow : Consumers are encouraged to purchase seafood in this category, as they are better choices than seafood in the Avoid category. However there are some concerns with how this species is fished and thus it does not demonstrate all of the qualities of a sustainable fishery as defined by Seafood Watch.
Avoid/Red : Consumers are encouraged to avoid seafood in this category, at least for now. Species in this category do not demonstrate enough qualities to be defined as sustainable by Seafood Watch.
