Preliminary experiments on application of participatory GIS in trawlfisheries of Karnataka and its prospects in marine fisheries resourceconservation and management

Abstract

Geographic Information System (GIS) has become a part of our day today life in empowering institutions to formulateacceptable solutions in societal issues. More recently, public participatory GIS (PPGIS) and participatory GIS (PGIS) wereviewed as more efficient tools in solving social and resource conservation issues, which empower communities those whoare often ignored in traditional GIS practices. In fisheries, PGIS concept was first reported from Canada and on these linespioneering efforts of involving concept of PGIS in fisheries is being attempted in Karnataka, where the geospatial data onfishing, catch and samples of fish caught by commercial fishing vessels were shared with the research organization and thedata and samples thus shared were processed by fishery and GIS experts to come out with various tools for fishery managementand resource conservation of the region. The study showed that the trawlers from Mangalore carried out trawling operationsfrom sea off Calicut in the south (75 oE, 11 oN) to off Ratnagiri in the north (73.5 oE, 17 oN). Their depth of operation wasbetween 5 m and 167 m, which signify the importance of revalidation of state–wise policies in introduction of mechanizedvessels based on the landing in the respective states. The study showed that during the period, 237 species / groups of marinefauna were discarded of which many were juveniles of commercial species and rest were of adult size fishes of low or nomarket value. Spatio-temportal distribution and abundance of commercially lesser known species, which was not reportedearlier from the coast,which have high trophic importance like small crabs, Charybdis hoplites and shrimp species like Metapenaeus andamanensis were brought out as the results of the study. Study also provided information on a uniqueecosystem off Karnataka coast and with reef species and there is an immediate need for conserving this ecosystem. Based onthe results of distribution and abundance of marine resources, spatial and seasonal restrictions on fishing efforts can beadvocated in areas and seasons during which high incidence of bycatch of juveniles and non-commercial biota is beingcaught. This will help in sustaining marine fisheries from Malabar and Konkan coasts.