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How Long Does it Take for Tropical Marine Fish Stocks to Recover after Declines?Case Studies from the Southwest Coast of India


Affiliations
1 Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, PO Box 1603, Kochi 682 018, India
2 Mangalore Research Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, PO Box 244, Mangalore 575 001, India
 

The depletion/collapse and recovery of tropical marine fish stocks have been studied by deriving the time-series of stock status of commercially fished marine species in Karnataka. Majority of stocks (22 out of 47) showed wide fluctuations in catch whereas 15 stocks were dwindling. This analysis of catch trends (as a simple proxy for biomass estimates) shows that, in spite of consistently increasing efforts and absence of many regulatory measures, most species (66%) had fast recovery capacity within 1-5 years whereas 9% were slow to recover. The depleted and declining stocks need to be carefully monitored and conservation and rebuilding plans need to be made.

Keywords

Arabian Sea, Fluctuating and Dwindling Stocks, Karnataka, Recovery After Decline, Tropical Marine Fish Stocks.
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  • How Long Does it Take for Tropical Marine Fish Stocks to Recover after Declines?Case Studies from the Southwest Coast of India

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Authors

K. S. Mohamed
Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, PO Box 1603, Kochi 682 018, India
S. Veena
Mangalore Research Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, PO Box 244, Mangalore 575 001, India

Abstract


The depletion/collapse and recovery of tropical marine fish stocks have been studied by deriving the time-series of stock status of commercially fished marine species in Karnataka. Majority of stocks (22 out of 47) showed wide fluctuations in catch whereas 15 stocks were dwindling. This analysis of catch trends (as a simple proxy for biomass estimates) shows that, in spite of consistently increasing efforts and absence of many regulatory measures, most species (66%) had fast recovery capacity within 1-5 years whereas 9% were slow to recover. The depleted and declining stocks need to be carefully monitored and conservation and rebuilding plans need to be made.

Keywords


Arabian Sea, Fluctuating and Dwindling Stocks, Karnataka, Recovery After Decline, Tropical Marine Fish Stocks.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv110%2Fi4%2F584-594