Recreational fishing by angling is practised worldwide which is gaining importance in India as well. Circle hooks are getting more popular as it shows less injury with enhanced post-release survival, which promote catch and release as well as conservation. In the present study, circle and ‘J’ hooks were compared for hooking pattern, extent of injury and post-release survival in Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) in recreational fishing. Results depicted that overall hooking rate was lower for circle hooks (29%) than ‘J’ hooks (31%). Occurrence of lip hooking was more with circle hooks (73.6%) than ‘J’ hooks (58.8%), whereas jaw hooking was comparatively low in case of circle hooks than ‘J’ hooks. Circle hooks showed no throat hooking whereas ‘J’ hooks recorded 5.88% for the same. Foul hooking was not observed in case of both hook types. In the present study, with ‘J’ hooks, 52.9% of fishes showed no bleeding, slight and moderate bleeding was found in 17.6% fishes, whereas 11.7% had severe bleeding. For circle hooks, the corresponding values were 73.6, 21.05, 5.26 and 0%. There was 100% survival for the fishes upto 72 h post-release in both cases.

The present communication is a study on the impact of bottom trawling on the sediment characteristics along Veraval coast, which is the largest trawler port of India. Experimental bottom trawling was conducted from MFV Sagarkripa at five transects of water depths 15-20 m, 21-25 m, 26-30 m, 31-35 m and 36-40 m in commercial trawling grounds. Trawling was conducted for 12 months in a span of 15 months (September 2005-November 2006) excluding the trawl ban period (June to August). The sediment texture was analysed by pipette analysis and organic matter by wet oxidation method. The variations in organic matter and sediment texture were prominent between the stations selected at different depths. The sedimentary organic matter exhibited variations with different water depths and seasons. The organic matter content decreased with depth. Experimental trawling considerably reduced the organic matter content at all depths. Continued and incessant trawling operation can cause even more drastic reductions, where organic matter (OM) content is already very small. The sand proportion showed depth-wise variation; but seasonal and trawling effect was not significant showing highest values at 36-40 m depth. The silt proportion did not exhibit significant depth-wise variation. The seasonal variation of silt was significant whereas trawling effect imparted to silt was not evident. Trawling has no significant effect on clay concentration. But seasonal variation had great influence on the clay distribution and indicated significantly high depth-season interaction. The sediment of the study area was predominant in silt proportion. It was observed that the seasonal/natural variations were more prominent masking the trawling effect on silt.

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The annual harvestable marine fisheries potential of Goa is estimated to be about 1.5 lakh t of which 50% is exploited. Potential fishing zone (PFZ) forecasts based on remotely sensed chlorophyll concentration and sea surface temperature are being applied for harvesting marine fishery resources. In this context, a validation study was carried out to analyse the effectiveness of PFZ advisories for Goa coast by 290 simultaneous purse-seine fishing experiments in PFZ and non-PFZ regions. A total of 290 feedbacks were collected from 290 fishing experiments within and outside the PFZ region with similar capacity vessels during 2006-2012. There was 50% reduction in scouting time for the purse-seine fishing which utilised the PFZ advisories. Purse-seiners were benefitted with a significantly higher (p<0.01) mean CPUE (4188.6 kg h -1 ) and mean profit (`2.72 lakhs) by fishing in PFZ regions in comparison with the mean CPUE (1783.5 kg h -1 ) and mean profit (`0.86 lakh) of non-PFZ regions. It was observed that the CPUE in purse-seine fishery was improved by 2.3 times by using PFZ advisories. Moreover, the benefit cost ratio significantly (p<0.01) improved in purse-seine fishing from PFZ regions (2.48) compared to non-PFZ regions (0.79). The species-wise analysis showed that Indian mackerel, Indian oilsardine, horse mackerel and seerfish formed the major species that differentiated the catches from PFZ regions. Thus, it was inferred that the PFZ advisories basically holds good for the pelagic species. The use of oceanographic and plankton data for species-specific forecasts in the future is discussed.

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