The Sciaenid fishery resources off Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh

This paper presents the trend of Sciaenid fishery off Kakinada during the period 1990-99 with a brief description of the species represented. The annual average landing of the group in trawl was 1726t (36 kg/E; 2.5 kg/hr.) contributing to 6.3 % in the total marine landings at Kakinada.The fishery is exposed to high fishing pressure as evidenced by a decline in the catch and catch rate with an increase in effort over the period. Seasonally, peak landings were obtained during January/February and during August to November. Otolithus ruber (12%) followed by Johnius carutta (11.6%) were the major species represented in the trawl landings. In gill net, the annual catch of 44 t was represented by Protonibea diacanthus (51%) and Nibea soldado (36.2%). Peak landing was obtained during March, June and December in gill net. A total of 17 species belonging to 11 genera were represented in the landings. The important identifying characters of the species are described