Prawn fishery by the sona boats at Visakhapatnam

The catch of prawns per hour of trawling along the Visakhapatnam coast (cph) by sona boats (43'OAL) gradually increased from 1.70 kg in 1993-'94 to 2.96 kg in 1996-'97. Prawns were landed throughout the year with the main season during July-December. The peaks in the fishery varied in different years. Metapenaeus monoceros dominated forming 23.6-30.3 % of the annual landings in different years followed by M. dobsoni (12.2-34.5 %), M. affinis (3.0-18.4 %), P. indicus (7.9-14.5 %), P. monodon (3.0-5.8 %) and P. semisulcatus (0.7-1.0 %). M. affinis and P. monodon indicated overfishing tendencies while all the other commercial species maintained the stocks in a healthy state. Since sona boat is more cost-effective than the small mechanised boats, mini trawlers and large trawlers, it has become a threat to these boats. Hence it is suggested that there should be a restriction on further increase in the number of sona boats not only at Visakhapatnam but also at Paradeep and Kakinada to save the other fleets operating for prawns