CMFRI Bulletin No. 39: Introduction

India is endowed with a pearl oyster resource which has been exploited for the natural pearls from time immemorial and, in the historical past, pearls have been one of the precious objects, along with spices, exported from the ports in the South. The Gulf of Mannar and Gulf of Kutch are the well known haunts of this resource and pearl fisheries had been organised in the past from Tuticorin and Jamnagar respectively. The 'paars' of Gulf of Mannar have yielded to very valuable fisheries in the past, the most successful of which has been the fishery series of 1955-1961. Since then the beds have gone back into a recessive phase without much of pearl oyster stock as has been the typical situation in the past. The ' khaddas ' of the Gulf of Kutch, after yielding to a moderate fishery in 1966-67 season, have likewise, been unproductive since then