Effect of bottom trawling on physico-chemical parameters, benthos and fish fauna of Mangalore Coast, Karnataka State

Trawling, the most efficient method of catching fish world over is also found to be the most important human caused physical disturbance on the world's continental shelves and hence the physical destruction of ecosystems.Trawl gears often catch additional untargeted organisms, which are generally not commercially valuable and subsequently discarded dead or alive.Effect of trawling has been studied world-over in the last few years but relatively few studies have been conducted in the Indian waters.Habitat disturbance by otter trawling is probably one of the most significant threats to marine benthic biodiversity. A study has been carried out to assess the short and long term effects of bottom trawling on benthic com m unities in the inshore bottom habitat off Mangalore coast by which an area of the sea bottom is disturbed by fishing gear and the post-disturbance impact on the biota is compared and to assess the quantity of discards, incidentals and juvenile fishes which otherwise form the non-target groups in the commercial trawling