COMMERCIALLY IMPORTANT FISHES

Important fishes found in estuaries
a. Mullets form 1/3 of the total catch of brackish waters. These include species like Mugil cephalus, M. tade, M. cunnesius, Valamugil seheli, Liza macrolepis, L. tade, L. parsia. etc. They are caught almost throughout the year. Mullets are Hallmark of Krishna estuary.
b. Perches: Lates calcarifer (pearl spot) is the most popular estuarine perch. Others include Holocantrus serranus, Lethirinus nebulosus, Ambassis ambassis, Terapon jarbua Etc.
c. Cat fishes: These are very important fishes. These are also cultured in brackish waters due to their market demand. Important species include – Mystus gulio, Heteropneustes fossilis, Pangasius sutchi, P. pangasius Arieus, Myceous sp. etc.
d. Clupeoids: the famous among this category is Hilsa ilaisha which has commercially high demand. Hilsa forms major catch of Hoogly estuary. It is an anadromous fish. Neotilosa, Manon, Elops sp. are other estuarine clupeoids fishes having economical value.
Other fishes include Chanos chanos (milk fish), Etroplus suratensis, ribbon fishes etc.

Estuarine Shell fishery: Shell fishery of estuaries comprise mainly prawns and crabs. Fish catches from estuaries are often dominated by prawns and crabs. Pinaeus indicus, P. monodon (Tiger prawn), P. semiselcatus, Metapenaeus dobsonii, M. monoceros, M. brevicornis are some of the prawns. Crabs like Scyla serrata, Portunus pelagicus are found in estuarine waters.

Brackish water lakes: some lakes are formed by brackish waters. India’s largest such lake is chilka lake in orissa. It has a length of 70km and width of 32km. 152 species of different fishes and 21 species of prawns inhabit this lake.

Marine fishery resources

India has 8,118 kilometers of marine coastline, 3,827 fishing villages, 1,914 fish landing centers to and 2.6 lakh square kilometers of fishing area. In 2008 India was the sixth largest producer of marine and freshwater capture fisheries, and the second largest aquaculture farmed fish producer in the world. The marine fish landings of india were estimated to be 3.32 million tons during the year 2010. India accounts for about 38% of total world fish production.

The fishing area of the sea is devided into A. Neritic zone which extends from the shore upto 200 meters depth. It is also called coastal ocean/continental shelf. B. Pelagic zone is the region of the sea that starts after neritic zone. Pelagic zone is the open sea region with a mean depth of 4 kilometers. Fish that live in pelagic zone are called pelagic fish. C. Demersal zone comprises the middle part of the sea. It consists of water column that is near the sea bed. Most of the fishes are caught from this zone only.
Of the total fish landings, Pelagic fin fishes contribute nearly 55%, while the demersal fin fishes account for 25%. Crustaceans like shrimps, lobsters, crabs constitute around 15% while molluscans form 4%.
Traditional fishing contribute only 4% of the total marine landings. Motorized fishing is 28% and mechanised fishing contribute 68% of total landings.

Pelagic fish landings (2007 statistics)

Sardines: Pelagic fishlandings are dominated by oil sardines. They constitute 27% of the total pelagic fish catch. The important species among this are, sardinella longiceps, (Oil sardine). Other sardines like Sardinella albella, Sardinella gibbosa, sardinella fimbriata etc. contribute 7% of the catch.
Indian Mackeral: next to sardines Mackerals constitute nearly 10% of total pelagic fish catch. Fishery of mackerels is supported by 3 species namely Rastrelliger kanagurta, R. brachysoma and R. faughni.
Carangids: They constitute around 9% of the total pelagic fish landings. They include fishes like horse mackeral, moon fish (Mene maculata, pompano (Trachinotus. carolinus), Megalaspis cordyla, Decapterus russelli etc.
Ribbon fish: These fishes account for 9% of the total pelagic fish catch. Trichiurus lepturus is the dominant species under this group which form more than 90% of the ribbon fish landings. Other ribbon fishes are eupleurogrammus glossodon, E. muticus.
Anchovies: Anchovies form 8% of the total landings. Stolephorus indicus is the dominent species under this group. Others are Thryssa spp, and setipinna spp.
Bombay duck: Harpadon nehereus forms 6% of the pelagic fish landings. There is the most abundant fish available in the seas. It has lesser commercial value.
Tunas: The tuna fishery in india is supported mainly by – Little tuna (Euthnnus affinis), frigate tuna (Auxis thazard), Bullet tuna (A. rochei). It accounts for about 5% landings.
Seer fish: Seer fishes are one of the commercially important and highly valued pelagic fish of india. They constitute around 4% of the catch. The important species contributing seerfish landings are king seer (Scomboromorus commerson), spotted seer (S. guttatus).

Demersal fish landings

Perches: Demersal fish landings are dominated by perches accounting to about 31% of total catch. Perches are diverse group of fishes consisting rockcods (Epinephelus spp), Nemipterus spp. Threadfin breams etc.

Croakers: These are the next abundant species after perches. They constitute around 21% of total demersal fish catch of india. Dominant species in landings of croakers are Johnius belangerii, J. caritta, Nibea soldado etc. these are abundantly found fishes.
Cat fish: These fishes form around11% of the demersal fish landings. Dominent species in the landings are Arius arius, A. thalassinns, Tachysurus serratus etc.
Silver bellies: These fishes constitute 8%. Leiognathus splendens, L. bindus, Gazza minuta are some of the silver bellies that form major portion of the catch.
Pomfrets: these are commercially more valuable fishes. Pomfret fishery is supported by silver pomfret (Pampus argenteus) and Chinese pomfret (P. chinensis) and black pomfret (Parastromateus niger) etc.
Elasmobranchs: Elasmobranchs form an important group comprising sharks, skates and rays. They are commercially valuable for their body parts. They form 6% of the to total demersal fish landings. Scoliodon laticaudus, Aetobatus guttatus (eagle ray), okamejei powelli (indian skate)
Lizard fishes: they constitute 6% of the catch. Lizard fishery is supported by Saurida tumbil, Saurida undosquamis, Synodus indicus etc.
CrustaceansCrustacean fishery was supported by penaeid and non-penaeid shrimps, lobsters, crabs and stomatopods.
The landings of penaeid shrimps were constituted mainly by Parapenaeopsis stylifera, Metapenaeus dobsoni, Metapenaeus monoceros, Metapenaeus affinis,
The most abundant non-penaeid shrimps are Acetes spp., Nematopalaemon tenuipes.
Crabs in the landings were dominated by Portunus pelagicus and Portunus sanguinolentus. Lobsters are widely distributed along the Indian coast and the fishery is supported mainly by Panulirus homarus, Panulirus ornatus etc. penaeid shrimps conribute to 44%, non penaeids 38%, crabs 11% and lobsters 6% of the crustacean catches.
Molluscans: Molluscan fishery include Bivalves, gastropods, squids, cuttlefishes and octopus. They constitute to around 4% of total marine catches of india.

Conclusion:
Marine fish production from capture fisheries in India has increased by about six fold during the past six decades. Export earnings from the marine sector crossed 12,000 crores in 2010-11 and gross revenue through marine fish landings at the point of first sales was about 20,000 crores. Marine products are now exported from India to nearly 100 countries.
Mariculture is the latest trend to tap the resources of marine environment. Mariculture is the rearing of the aquatic organisms under controlled or semi-controlled conditions in coastal and offshore waters. In this culture mussels, oyesters, clams are being cultured which again contributes much the National income.
The region wise distribution of the fishery landings are like this. North east region (West Bengal and orissa) 13%, south East region (Andhra pradesh, Tamilnadu) contribute 22%, West coast (Maharastra and Gujarath ) contribute 30% where as south west region (Kerala karnataka ) contribute to the maximum of 35% of the total fishery landings of India.