Appraisal of Trawl Designs Operated Along Kerala Coast

Abstract

This study presents the design details of trawl nets being operated along Kerala coast. Trawls operated in Kerala can be grouped as fish trawl, shrimp trawl, cephalopod trawl and gastropod trawl based on target catch. The head rope length of different trawls ranged from 39.6 to 81.0 m. The mesh size of codends were in the range of 16-25 mm. Majority of the trawlers in Kerala use V-form steel otter boards and the smaller boats use wooden flat rectangular boards. A trend in increasing the mesh size of fish trawls at the wing to about 5000 mm was observed.