Guided by: Dr. Ajay yadavProfessor M.sc Dept.

Presented by: Abhi GiriM.Sc –II (Oceanography)Sem – III/ P- III

I. LOBSTER FISHERY• Lobster fishery in India.• Methods of lobster fishing.• Restrictions • Distribution of species.II. CRAB FISHERY• Crab fishing in India.• Crab landings.• Methods of collection & preservation,• Domestic marketing.• Crab research in India

Lobster fishery in India

American or Maine lobster Caribbean spiny lobster

Norway lobster, Dublin Bay prawn

• Lobsters are widely fished around the world for their meat.

• They are often hard to catch in large numbers, but their large size can make them a profitable catch. 

• Lobsters as excellent food of delicacy are widely acclaimed & have a world-wide market.

• South Africa, Australia and Cuba rank best in the spiny lobster fisheries

• Total 18 species of rock lobsters representing to 9 genera in family Palinuridae have been reported from indian ocean.

• Lobster fishery in India is supported by 6 species of shallow water spiny lobster belonging to the genus Panulirus namely

• P. homarus, P. polyphagus, P. ornatus, P. penicillatus, P. versicolor & P. longipes.

• Maximum lobster landing in India was realised mainly from Gujrat; Maharashtra & Tamil nadu.

• Sandlobster Thynus orientalis is also found in catch of Gujrat.

• The large Homarus lobsters are caught with lobster pots (also called "lobster traps").

• These are large rigid objects which the lobster enters to reach bait, and which it then cannot escape.

• Traps are also used in some spiny lobster fisheries, such as the fishery for the California spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus, in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

A lobster pot

• Trawling is the main method used for the Norway lobster or Dublin Bay prawn, Nephrops norvegicus, and for those slipper lobsters that prefer soft substrates, such as Thenus and Ibacus.

• It has also become more frequently used in the fishery for Homarus americanus.

• Gill nets and trammel nets are used for the Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus

• Slipper lobsters that prefer crevices, caves and reefs (including Scyllarides, Arctides and Parribacus species) are usually caught by SCUBA divers.

• Legal restrictions apply to the catching of lobsters in many parts of the world, in order to prevent overfishing and allow recruitment to the next generation.

• Common restrictions include the provision of a minimum landing size, preventing fishermen from catching "berried" females (females carrying eggs), closed seasons and limiting catches with individual fishing quotas.

• Commercial fishing regulators in the United States, such as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the National Marine Fisheries Service, enforce restrictions through the use of lobster fishing licenses and lobster pot tags that correspond to the fisher's permit number.

• Tag manufacturers also maintain databases for each state's licensed fisheries, tracking how many tags each fisher purchases every year.

• Of the 2,80,000 tons of lobster catches reported to the Food & Agriculture for the year 2010.

• 1,88,000 tons was of True lobster (Family Nephropidae).

• 80,000 tons was of Spiny lobsters (Palinuridae).• 10,000 tons was of Slipper lobsters (Scyllaridae)

Crab Fishery in India

• Crab fishery in India is yet to recognized as a major fishery despite the abundance all along the Indian coast.

• There are about 600 crab species in Indian waters.• Only few of them are used for human consumption • Scylla serrata,S. tranquedarica, Protunus pelagicns,

P. sanguinolentus, Charybdis crusiata, C. feriata.• Among these Scylla serata commonly called mud

crab or green crab forms mainstay of crab fishery in India & is economically most important.

• Occurring along both east & west coast of India.• Popular species in Indo-Pacific region because of its

size, meat quality, high price & export potential.

• Annual crab landings from the natural population is estimated to be 38,000 tonnes per year of which 25,000 tonnes is from marine sector & 13,000 tonnes from brackish water.

• Mud crab accounted for more than 75% of crab landing.• Crab meat, cut crab & live crabs are exported from India

to countries like Japan, USA, France, Hong Kong & Malaysia.

• In India the crab fishery is small scale & is based mainly on capture fishery.

• Kerala is a major supplier to the export trade and Chennai (Madras) is the main centre of live mud crab exports to Singapore and Malaysian markets.

STATE/TERRITORY

GEAR EMPLOYED FISHERY SEASON

MARINE SECTORGujarat Gillnet, stake net, cast net, line

with bait, pair of tongs, iron rodsJune-August

Maharashtra Seine net, hoop net, hooked iron or steelrods, line with bait

August-October

Goa Gillnet, line with bait, handpicking June-SeptemberKarnataka Gillnet, trawl net, scoop net October-MayTamil Nadu Boat seine, shore seine, gillnet,

cast net,trawl net

March-June and October-December

• S. serrata is much demand in the domestic market & fetches a good price, compared to other species of crab.

• It can be successfully marketed only in live condition, as there is a prejudice purchasing dead crab.

• Medium & large crab of more than 14 cm CW & weighing more than 400 g. are collected exclusively for export in WB, Orissa, AP, TN, Kerala, Karnataka, GOA, Maharashtra, etc

• Crab stay out of water for a max 72 hours, they are sent to major cities by train.

• They are packed in bamboo baskets, each basket accommodating about 20-30 kg.

• Middleman who collects often mark up the price by about 50-100 %, depending on the size, when re-selling them to the retailer at the market.

• Crabs are easy to collect & mostly hand picked in intertidal & sub tidal zones.

• Netting & trapping are the commercial fishing practices.• Burrowing intertidal crabs may be collected

either by digging or by purring or by pouring dilute formalin or weak acid inside the burrow.

• Crabs are preserved in 6-10% formalin neutralized with Hexamine i.e., 100 gm. per 1000ml formalin.

• To avoid limb-shredding crabs may be narcotized first with menthol crystals or by adding few drops of chloroform & then preserved in spirit of formalinated spirit for a day or two, after fixing crabs are preserved in 6-10% formalin for lab studies.

• National 1.Mumbai2.Karwar3.Kochi4.Pondicherry 5.Chennai6.Visakhapatna

m7.Port Blair

• Global• South Africa• Indonesia• Philippines• China• Japan• Australia• Hawaii

Scoop net

Gill net

Cast net

• True crabs make up 20% of all crustaceans caught and farmed worldwide, with about 1.4 million tonnes being consumed annually.

• The horse crab, Portunus trituberculatusaccounts for one quarter of that total.

• Other important species include flower crabs (Portunus pelagicus), snow crabs (Chionoecetes), blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus), edible or brown crabs (Cancer pagurus), Dungeness crab(Metacarcinus magister) and mud crabs (Scylla serrata), each of which provides more than 20,000 tonnes annually.

• The experimental culture of S. serrata in India indicates an average monthly growth of 9 mm / 10 gm. in laboratory, 11 mm / 19 gm. in cages and 14 mm /29 gm. in ponds. The survival rate ranges from 28 to 86 %.

• The estimated production rate is 494-600 kg/ha in monoculture and 690 kg/ha in polyculture with milkfish and mullet.

• It may be concluded that the culture of crabs has a good potential in India because of the abundance of edible species all along Indian coastline, their fast growth rate and short life history. However, sufficient data is not available to assess the economic viability of the mud crab culture.

• In this context, further research and development on S. serrata and other commercially important crab species are needed to assess the economic viability of its culture

• Scylla serrata is an economically important crab species found in the estuaries and mangroves of Africa, Australia and Asia.

• The shell colour varies from a deep, mottled green to very dark brown.

• Generally cooked with their shells on, when they moult their shells, they can be served as a seafood delicacy, one of many types of soft shell crab.

• They are among the tastiest crab species and have a huge demand in South Asian countries where they are often bought alive in the markets.

• Mud crabs are relatively common and generally prized above other seafood within the general public.

• known as the horse crab, gazami crab or Japanese blue crab, is the most widely fished species of crab in the world, with over 300,000 tonnes being caught annually, 98% of it off the coast of China.

• Horse crabs are found in South India, In Malay, it is known as ketam bunga or "flower crab".

• It lives on shallow sandy or muddy bottoms, less than 50 m deep, where it feeds on seaweeds and predates upon small fish, worms and bivalves.

• large crab found in the intertidal estuaries of the Indian and Pacific Oceans 

• The name flower crab is used in east Asian countries while the latter names are used in Australia.

• They stay buried under sand or mud most of the time, particularly during the daytime and winter.

• The species is commercially important throughout the Indo-Pacific where they may be sold as traditional hard shells, or as "soft shelled" crabs, which are considered a delicacy throughout Asia.

• The species is highly prized as the meat is almost as sweet as the blue crab, although P. pelagicus is physically much larger.