The windowpane oyster resources of Kakinada Bay

Among the commercially exploited bivalve mollmcs in India the windowpane oyster Placenta placenta (Uniiaeus) (Talapu gulla in Telugu) is next in importance to the clams in quantitative abundance. A major fishery for this species exists in the Kakinada Bay where the annual production is about 50001. Production is about 1500 t/year of empty shells in the Kndhara Bay in the Gulf of Kutch and about 350 t/year in Naukim Bay at Goa. In the fishery at Kakinada Bay about 300 plank-built boats are deployed. This species occurs in stray numbers at several other centres along the Indian Coast. Considerable quantities of the shell are also collected from the subsoil deposits, particularly from the Vembanad Lake in Kerala State