Area 51 (Indian Ocean, Western)

Industry led FIP started by Netuno USA, Inc and local partners Neptune, IndoFisheries and Winsor World Export targeting Squid fisheries in the West Coast India. 

Squid Uroteuthis (Photololigo) duvaucelii (hereafter “Indian squid”) is the most important of a range of squid species targeted by the trawl fishery. CMFRI (Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute) note that squid catch and CPUE can vary a lot between years, considering that this relates to high variability in recruitment (e.g. a very large year class entering the fishery in 2014, leading to high catches and CPUE that year). The peak spawning season is, like cuttlefish, immediately after the monsoon, which is also the season when catch rates are highest (targeting mating aggregations). Like cuttlefish the eggs are demersal (attached to hard substrata). The species is short-lived; previously CMFRI considered the life span to be ~2-2.5 years, but recent analysis based on statoliths suggests that it may only be one year. Its distribution is coastal and it occurs around the Indian Ocean from northern Madagascar to northern Australia. U. duvaucelii makes up 88% of the squid catch according to this analysis.

This FIP focuses on Indian squid, Uroteuthis (Photololigo) duvaucelii, caught from Gujarat to Kerala (West Coast of India, northeastern Arabian Sea). There are significant differences across the West coast fisheries (between the SE Arabian Sea- SW Coast and the NW Arabian sea-SE Coast), including across all fishing patterns, different continental slopes, oceanography, regulations (SE coast has small boats, less powerful), where the squid are recovering. The fisheries operations also differ by mesh size restrictions and the length of the seasonal ban. Kerala’s compliance rates have improved since they first implemented the regulation.  

The high percentage (54.2%) of overfished stocks along the northwest coast of India can be attributed to the very high number of fishing vessels in the states of Gujarat, Daman Diu, and Maharashtra and the consequent fishing pressure on these resources. The number of mechanized fishing vessels in this region together accounts for nearly half (49.7%) of the national total (CMFRI-FSI-DoF, 2020). The southwest coast, particularly Kerala, has a high percentage (52%) of sustainable fish stocks, and this could be because of the recent regulations to curtail overcapacity and overfishing (Mohamed, 2017a) (Sathianandan et al. 2021).

Squid catches, and CPUE can vary significantly between years due to its high variability in recruitment.  Stock assessments covering Uroteuthis (Photololigo) duvaucelii along the west coast of India estimate the populations to be close to MSY (Sasikumar et al., 2017) or in the ‘abundant’ category (Venkatesan et al., 2017). Its peak spawning season is immediately after the monsoon, which is when catch rates are at their highest (targeting mating aggregations). The CMFRI publication in 2023 on the Marine fish stocks status of India summarises the stock status of Uroteuthis (Photololigo) duvaucelii as ‘sustainable’ from the Southwest coast of India and rebuilding from the North West coast of India.

Gear, vessels, and fishery operations differ across the western states of India. The fishery is prosecuted by relatively small boats that are involved in other fisheries but use different nets depending on the target species (largely associated with the shrimp fishery). To provide an idea of scale, there are around 5,000 boats operating in the India Kerala shrimp and cephalopods – trawl, which are mostly 18m to 25m in length. There are several (~12) types of nets on board. Trawl nets, operating up to 100m depth, account for ~85% of cephalopod landings.

Industry led FIP started by Netuno USA, Inc. and local partners Neptune, IndoFisheries and Baraka targeting grouper fisheries in India. Groupers are found in the waters of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Kutch, Paradeep and Andaman seas (Varghese et al. 2021). On the southwest coast, Kerala represents 47.8% of the marine fish harvest, followed by 43.7% is from Karnataka and 8.5% from Goa. Catches largely occur by mechanized fishing crafts (75.7%), motorized fishing crafts (21.8%) and non-mechanized country crafts (2.5%) (Sathianandan et al. 2021). In Kerala waters, grouper are found at depths 60-150m in rocky and coral reef grounds in areas called the "Kalava grounds". The main grouper species caught in Kerala include Epinephelus diacanthus, E. malabaricus, E. tauvina, E. chlorostigma and E. bleekeri. Epinephelus diacanthus is the main grouper species caught here, constituting 90% of the groupers landed (Varghese et al. 2021). The most recent catch data indicate that the species comprises ~61% of the catch landed at the main landing centre in the southwest area (specifically Kerala) with no clear sign of a decline in landings (Nair et al. 2018a). The Karnataka coast is around 300 km long and trawls form the main gear type from the mechanised sector. The State has around 96 fish landing centres, the most important being Mangaluru fisheries harbour (representing around 40 percent of Karnataka’s total catch). A recent study of landings at the site suggested that bycatch represents around 68% of the trawl catches, with shrimp, flatfishes, sciaenids, squids and crabs representing target species (Velip & Rivonker, 2015). Most bycatch in Karnataka is landed by single-day trawlers (SDT). SDTs generally operate in depths up to 30 m with the entire catch landed (including both edible ~74% and LVB  ~26%). 

AGAC has recently assessed its tropical tuna fishery against the MSC Fisheries Standard - it resulted in the certification of the skipjack tuna stock, which was one of the three Units of Assessment (for more information on this process, click here).

With its Indian Ocean yellowfin & bigeye tuna – purse seine FIP, the goal is to contribute to the improvement of yellowfin and bigeye tuna stock status in the Indian Ocean, as these stocks did not meet the MSC requirements in the aforementioned assessment. For that, the work here will focus only on the PIs that did not meet SG80 (mainly the ones that might not be fully tackled by the MSC Certification's Client Action Plan, more specifically to resolve the non-binding conditions that were set) and on the recommendations made by the CAB.

This FIP was developed exclusively by AGAC.

(NB: AGAC = Asociación de Grandes Atuneros Congeladores = Association of Large Tuna Freezers; please note that the denomination OPAGAC [Organización de Productores de Grandes Atuneros Congeladores] is contained in AGAC and refers to vessels flagged in the EU. While the name "OPAGAC" is more widely known, it is AGAC that integrates all the vessels in the association)

The fishery being assessed is the Dongwon Industries Indian Ocean purse seine FAD fishery. The fishery targets bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis), and yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) with free-school (unassociated) and FAD-associated purse seine sets. The fleet of two purse seine vessels are flagged to the Republic of Korea. The fleet operates mainly in EEZs of the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar and the Indian Ocean (IO) high seas. The fishery is managed regionally by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC).

The following Units of Assessment (UoAs) were considered in this FIP:

• Indian Ocean stocks of skipjack, bigeye and yellowfin, caught by purse seine in the Seychelles EEZ and managed by national management of the Seychelles and regionally by IOTC (three UoAs);
• Indian Ocean stocks of skipjack, bigeye and yellowfin, caught by purse seine in the Mauritius EEZ and managed by national management of Mauritius and regionally by IOTC (three UoAs);
• Indian Ocean stocks of skipjack, bigeye and yellowfin, caught by purse seine in the Indian Ocean high seas and managed by national management of the Republic of Korea and regionally by IOTC (three UoAs).