Productivity Enhancement Through Carp Fish Seed Stocking and its Ecological Ramifications in Govind Sagar & Pong Reservoir of Himachal Pradesh.

Production and productivity of aquatic products in freshwater reservoirs of Himachal Pradesh has become a matter of deep concerns among the departmental fisheries biologists and associated researchers in this field. Downward sliding catch trends have impelled the policy makers & managers of the department to score out the strategies of one-way action of intensive stocking of carp fingerlings (>100mm) irrespective of weight parameter since a couple of decades ago. Stress is also on conservation by enforcing closed – season under section III, sub section 3 article (d) of the H.P. Fisheries Act 16, 1976 to ensure the natural breeding in two reservoirs i.e. Pong reservoir with av. spread area 15000ha. and Gobind Sagar with av. water spread area of 10000ha. Restriction on use of fishing gill nets with minimum mesh aperture not less than 4 inches from knot to knot when stretched across. Despite the application of technical tools, the situation of production and productivity in both reservoirs is not resurrecting up to the optimum sustainable levels. The outcomes of the applied efforts indicate the existence of ecological and technical management gaps. The improvement in these fields could help to improve the planktonic food populations and stocking of appropriate number of grazer fish species of economic importance, hence the productivity of the water bodies and significant fish yields. Improvement in stocking methodologies keeping in view the ecology of seed stocking grounds, availability of the appropriately sized food particles for the stocked fingerlings is of great significance. Seed grading shall also be of great importance prior to their releasing in the reservoir. Ecological aspects like standing crop of appropriate planktons, physiology of stocking fingerlings i.e. response to new eco-system of reservoir, morphology of fingerlings i.e. shape & size and body conformity of stocking fingerlings, adaptability to new water environment, acclimatization of fingerlings prior to stocking in the reservoirs, water chemistry, physical parameters like pH, temperature, transparency, thermal stratification, turbidity etc. are equally significant to be considered before stocking. The article is to throw a focus on the issues coming out of the studies and to find out suggestive techniques to improve the productivities of the reservoirs.