Assessment of evidences of fishing gear losses from selected areas of Indian waters

Fishing gears may be lost in the seas because of rough climatic conditions, damages to the gear, entanglement with bottom obstructions or dragged away by other fishing vessels or ships, etc. These lost gears designated as abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gears (ALDFG) contribute to species mortality by continuing to entangle and kill fishes and other endangered/threatened species such as turtles, birds, and mammals, a phenomenon referred to as ghost fishing. Passive gears like traps and gillnets may catch fish for several months or even years after they are lost. Locating ALDFG will be helpful to understand the fate and transport of lost fishing gear and to remove them from marine waters, thus eliminating its harmful impacts to species and habitats.  The present study was undertaken for evidences of fishing gear losses and ghost fishing from selected areas of Indian waters. An underwater investigation by scuba diving was conducted at Enayam, Tamil Nadu & Vizhinjam coast of Kerala.  About 33kg lost gears were recovered by scanning an area of 700m² seabottom at Enayam. Six types of lost gears were retrieved in which Nylon monofilament gillnet panels (47.3%) were the predominant gear types followed by pieces of trawl codends , parts of long lines, ropes, traps, and squid jigs. Retrieved traps contained Molluscs, Arthropods, Echinoderms, Annelids and Cnidarians, Poriferans at various degrees of decomposition. From the Vizhinjam coast of Kerala, gillnet webbings and ropes were recovered. This baseline information will be useful to understand the scale and distribution of ALDFG and identification of the hotspot areas of gear losses.