Economic externalities of low value fishes in trawl operations in Kerala

Abstract

Fisheries over the years evolved from subsistence fishing towards a capital intensive enterprise. There has been structural transformation in the fishing fleet with motorisation and mechanisation. The current scenario of marine fisheries in terms of fishing fleets clearly indicates a situation “too many boats chasing too few fishesâ€. Due to the tragedy of commons in operation, increasing fleet size as well as costs of fishing and the decreasing catch per unit efforts, the fishing operations have taken a toll. The mechanised sector is venturing into multiday fishing which negate the losses of fishing cost. Sizeable amount of low value fishes are landed across the landing centres on account of targeted fishing. Low value fishes include juveniles, bycatch, trash fishes and discards and it is estimated that around 30% of the mechanised landings constitute low value fishes which has a huge untapped economic value. Economic loss due to low value catch could be reduced by implementing mesh-size regulations to avoid juvenile catch, prevent discards and utilising bycatch. Appropriate utilisation strategies are to be developed with respect to discards, regulating multiday fishing operations or innovative measures may be adopted to land the catches on frequent intervals. There exists a huge consumer demand on account of the escalating domestic market prices of fish. The paper focuses on the targeted fishing and resultant huge amount of low value fishes that possess huge economic value which are being surpassed. The paper estimates the quantum of low value fish across the different fishing sectors. The paper suggests the possible policy intervention required for harnessing the market for low value fishes.