The Hindu Business Line : Tuna fishing: 22 long liner vessels flagged off from Vizag

Giving a fillip to the fledgling tuna fishing industry in India, 69 tuna long liner fishing vessels have been introduced into the Indian waters from various tuna landing centres in the country.

Of these, 22 were flagged off from the Visakahpatnam Harbour by Mr G. Mohan Kumar, Chairman of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), recently and another 78 vessels are expected to join the Visakhapatnam fleet shortly.

From shrimp to tuna

As more and more fishing trawlers get converted into tuna long line fishing vessels for tapping the massive tuna resources of the deep-sea, fishermen are apparently giving up their shrimp-centric approach, the MPEDA said.

Tuna is the third largest internationally traded fish in the global markets and appears headed to become the Indian marine product of the year.

India with an estimated potential oceanic resources of 2.13 lakh tonnes of yellow fin tuna, big eye and skipjack, is set to become one of the major destinations for the tuna fishing industry.

Ship conversion

To tap this potential, the MPEDA has been taking the initiative of popularising the conversion of the existing fishing vessels to tuna long liners.

Export of tuna which started at nine tonnes grew to 23,788 tonnes in 2006-07.

Tuna is exported from India mainly in the form of frozen, dried, chilled and in canned tins.

Tuna export realisation grew from Rs 69.31 crore ($15.68 million) in 2005-06 to Rs 130.38 crore ($29.54 million) in 2006-07.

Top among the countries importing tuna from India was the European Union, followed by South-East Asian countries, Japan and West Asia.

Kochi port

Kochi was the principal port from where the maximum tuna exports took place, both in terms of volume and value.

This was followed by Pipavav, Chennai, Mundra and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

One of the principal deterrents to the growth in tuna exports was the absence of tuna fishing and its post harvest handling and processing technology.

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