Fishery, production and marketing of mud crab (Scylla serrata) of Coringa Mangroves, Kakinada district, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract : Mud crab, S. serrata is caught by the crab fishers with wide varieties of indigenous devices. The methods and gear depend on the fishing grounds and the time of fishing. The size of the crab caught also depends on the gear used by the fishers. Even though the crab fishery is the livelihood to many fishers no information is available on the fishery, production and marketing. To fill the gap, the present study has taken up to assess the present status of mud crab fishery, craft and gear used in Coringa mangroves, Andhra Pradesh, India. The crab fishing villages in the study area were Pedavalasala, China valasala, Gadimoga, Kothuru, Lakshmipathi puram, Pedda Boddu Venkataya Palem, China BodduVenkataya Palem, Ramanna palem, Chollangi peta in Tallarevu Mandal. The main landing centers are Chollangipeta, Chinavalasala and Pedavalasala. The use of a particular gear varies from village to village in the study area. The main gear used in the mud crab fishery was the Long Lines, Rods, Rings, Gill nets and Stake Nets. The craft used by the crab fishermen was locally called as “Nava”. The long lines, hooks, ring nets were the main crab targeted fishing gear in the study area. 95% of the landings were contributed by these three types of gear. The number of boats engaged for crab fishing was 716. Out of the total 2897 number of gear used for crab fishing, the number of hooks operated were 1939 (67%), lines 536 (18%), rings 195 (7%), stake nets 163 (6%), gill nets 68 (2%). In the total landings, 80-90% comprises small sized crabs of < 200gm, 10 -20% are crabs of size >200gm. In a peak season i.e., October-December in the post monsoon period there are heavy landings @ 15 kg per nava. In a lean season i.e., March- May there is an average of 4 or 5kg crabs per boat. In the intermediary season (wet season/monsoon season) i.e., from July to October average landings are 8 to 10kg per nava. During the study period from Chollangipeta and Chinavalasala landing centres, on an average daily 10 navas and 80 navas from Pedavalasala were operated. A total number of 46,257 kg of mud crabs were exported from the collection points to the Chennai market during the study period. Out of that, Red big variety (>350gm male & > 200gms of female) was 29286kg and Red small variety (>250gm to 340gms male & >150gms to 190gms) was 17071 kg.