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Our Bureau

Kochi , June 7

THE Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) has developed a juvenile fish excluder-cum-shrimp sorting device that helps to reduce by-catch from shrimp trawls and protect juvenile fish.

The new device is expected to answer one of the greatest challenges before modern fisheries in recent times: to develop and implement selective fishing gear to minimise the ecological and environmental impacts of fishing. The importance of minimising by-catch is evident in reducing ecological impacts of fishing operations and has been emphasised by fishery managers and scientists across the world, CIFT said.

"In India, 40 per cent of the by-catch is contributed by juveniles. This special design of by-catch reduction device has been proposed, which will bring down the by-catch in commercial shrimp trawl of juveniles and small-sized non-targeted species, at the same time enabling the fishermen to harvest and retain large commercially valuable fin-fishes and shrimp species, and exclude the juveniles and sub-adults and low value small size fishes," a release from CIFT said.

The new device serves dual purpose of reducing the by-catch of shrimp trawls and also protect juveniles, which is undertaken along with the shrimp sorting.

The basic advantages of the new device being that the conventional cod-end can be easily replaced without any alteration in the net design. The internal sorting process reduces the sorting time and increases the productive fishing time.

The quality of the shrimp is also expected to be better due to the prevention of physical pressure caused by the accumulation of larger fishes, which takes place when conventional cod-ends are used. The fishermen would also be able to retain large fishes of higher market value that will contribute to the overall revenue of the fishermen.

Training required for fishermen for fabrication, installation and operations would be minimal and help in the process of sustainable fisheries. Remarkable increase in trawling time can also be expected, as the nets will not be accumulated with by-catch and juveniles, CIFT said.

Recognising the importance of the device, the scientific team from CIFT has been awarded the International Smart Gear Award. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) had constituted the award to bring together partners representing fisheries, policy and science to find solutions to the problem of accidental catch of non-targeted species. The research team comprising Dr M.R. Boopendranath, Dr P. Pravin, Mr T.R. Gibinkumar and Mr S. Sabu of fishing technology division has been chosen for the award.

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