Not AvailablePurse seining is an important commercial fishing method all over the world. In India, the purse seine net was tried in nineteen fifties under the Indo-Norwegian Project and was tried in the small scale mechanised sector from 1974 onwards. The gear was used along the coastal line targeting pelagic shoals and the mesh size was only 18-22 mm, which proved to be highly destructive due to intensive catching of pelagic fishes including juveniles. On the other side, the traditional fishing sector depending on pelagic sources in shoreline faced competition with the purse seiners, which often led to conflicts. Consequently, purse seining was banned by the Supreme court of India. In this context, to help the small scale mechanised sector...