Sampling design for estimation of marine fish landings- Winter School on Towards Ecosystem Based Management of Marine Fisheries – Building Mass Balance Trophic and Simulation Models

India has a coast line of about 8129 km. Fishing is largely in the hands of a number fishermen and fishing is done by small mechanized and indigenous craft. Landings take place almost all along in the coast line throughout the day and sometimes during night. There are about 2000 fishing villages scattered along the coast line from where fishermen go for fishing and return to a landing centre which may be distinct from the fishing village. There are about 1300 landing centres scattered along the coastline of the main land. Under these conditions collection of statistics by complete enumeration would involve a very large number of enumerators and a huge sum of money apart from the time involved in collection of data. In this context a feasible solution for obtaining marine fish landings is the adoption of a suitable sampling technique for the collection of fish landing data