2019 Vol.25 No.2 PP 217­-227

Analysis of landings of Indian mackerel during the period 2014 to 2018 at Junglighat fish landing centre, South Andaman, India

^*M. Kaliyamoorthy¹, S. Dam Roy² and V.K. Sahu³

^1*PRIST University, THANJAVUR, INDIA
²Central Island Agricultural Research Institute,
PORT BLAIR, INDIA
³Department of Zoology,
JNRM, (PORT BLAIR) INDIA
*Corresponding Author : Email : kamuthy@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Junglighat fishing harbour is a very large and dynamic fish landing Centre (FLC) in Andaman & Nicobar Islands where the maximum fishing gears operations occur. A study has been done to find out the status of Indian Mackerel catches by ring net at Junglighat FLC. Monthwise periodic visits have been done at this FLC for 5 (five) consecutive years from 2014 to 2018. 1322 operation of ring net were noted during the period (2014-18) and 1594 tons of fishes were captured i.e. ring net contributed 40.1 % of the catch amongst the other gears. There were indications that a single/similar stock of fish was being attracted to PFZ in comparison to Non –PFZ. This has been observed in the catches of Rastrelliger kanagurta caught (300 to 5270 kg) which was exceptionally higher at Potential Zones. The same was indicated during the experiments in two or three hauls. The fishes captured from the PFZ and Non PFZ were 56850 kg with an average of 1672.1±209.37 kg and 14700 kg with an average of 432.4±46.88 kg respectively. The Length-weight measurements of the fishes caught from both the zones have been done. Altogether 9 Class Intervals with respect to length were observed from the catch of R. kanagurta i.e. 141-160 mm, 161-180 mm ........301-320 mm. In the Class Intervals of 261-280 altogether199 specimens have been observed contributing 30.9% in the PFZ and the Class Intervals of 201-220, 144 specimens were observed contributing to 23% of the catch from the Non-PFZ. The length weight relationship (LWR) were illustrated for this species, the R2 value of R. Kanagurta corresponded to the PFZ and Non-PFZ were 0.926 and 0.893 respectively. The R2 value of the species at PFZ was higher which could be attributed to higher abundance food from the Potential Fishing Zone. The water samples were collected from various sites of PFZ and Non-PFZ during the study period and analysed. The average visibility at PFZ and Non-PFZ were 15.49±0.28 m and 16.74 ± 0.25 during respectively. The average dissolved oxygen (DO) at PFZ and Non-PFZ were 6.30±0.05 mg/lit respectively. Due to density of phytoplankton and Eddies the dissolved oxygen increased at PFZ than Non-PFZ. Alkalinity was at PFZ 111.16±1.09 ml/lit and Non PFZ 113.68 ± 1.28 ml/lit respectively.

Key words : Andaman, Fish Landing Centre, Mackerel, Non-PFZ, PFZ, Ring net.