Mudskipper Fishery and Indigenous Fishing Devices in Narmada Estuary, Gujarat

Abstract

Mudskippers form a lucrative fishery for the artisanal fishers in the middle and lower stretches of the Narmada estuarine region and offers sustainable livelihood to the fishermen community throughout the year. Mudskipper comes under the subfamily Oxudercinae of the family Gobiidae found in the tropical, subtropical and temperate regions with high nutritive value. Mudskippers are amphibious fish adapted to live in the intertidal environment and used to be very active when they are outside the water. The mudskippers usually inhabit the mudflats of estuaries and tidal zones of rivers in India, China and the Mekong Delta of Vietnam and are distributed from East to West Africa, South Pacific islands and Northern Australia. The Narmada estuary of Gujarat is one of the most productive estuaries in the west coast of India. This paper attempts to document the traditional fishing devices used to catch mudskipper in the Narmada estuary of Gujarat, and their fishery status. Mudskipper fishery is an important fishery resource for the livelihood of the rural fishers of Narmada estuarine region and contributed 17.68% of the total estuarine fish production during 2014-15. Three species were encountered in the Narmada estuary, namely, Boleophthalmus dussumieri, Periophthalmodon schloseri and Pseudapocryptes elongatus during the study period (2014-2015). The fish is mainly caught by the traditional fishing devices developed by the local fishers like fanda, sorpan, golava, kandari and chogia. Out of several fishing devices, fanda (stick-traps) was found to be the most common and economical fishing device.