Assessment on the present status of coastal fisheries at Gurunagar, Jaffna

Fishery is a major income source of the Sri Lankan people resides in the coastal region. Among those, Jaffna contributes a considerable proportion to the total fishery production of the island which was 4.5% of the total fish production in Sri Lanka in 2013. This study aimed to collect recent updated fisheries information as the government already identified Gurunagar as a potential site in Jaffna to develop to the status of a harbor. Fishery related data was collected during the period April to June 2015 from commercial fishing vessels and sirakuvalai fishing operations landed at Gurunagar. Primary data was collected through direct observations during the field visits and secondary information was collected from the records of the Fisheries office at Jaffna. Catch, effort species composition, fishing craft and gear information were collected from randomly selected fishing crafts on randomly selected days. Fishers at Gurunagar engage in different fishing practices. Fishing activities of this area are regulated by the Fisher’s societies with the assistance of Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. A total number of 28 species, representing 22 families were identified in commercial landings during the study period and also the species diversity and size of the fish (2.4 cm – 69 cm) varied with gear types. The types of gears used varied with the craft types. The catch rates of Outboard Fiber Reinforced Plastic Boats (OFRP one day boats) recorded as higher than in-board day boats. Total fish production was recorded as around 128 tons during the study period. Production of sirakuvalai was accounted for 7.4 % of the total production in the study area. Commercial production per day is recorded around 3972.5 kg/Day and the average number of boats actively operated is 150. The existing facilities in the Gurunagar landing site for anchoring boats, sorting the catches, auctioning, storing and distribution are not up to the level required for an export oriented fish landings. Results of the present study suggest the need of further monitoring of this landing site to gather reliable information at least one year of time to cover seasonal variations of fish landings.


Introduction
Island like Sri Lanka is mainly depends on fish as a food source that policies and management ensure its sustainable use and sufficient access for dependent communities (Anonymous, 2015).
Sri Lanka is situated in south of the Indian subcontinent. The total length of coastline is approximately 1,739.3 km and the area of continental shelf is 30,000 km 2 (CCD, 2013). In 2014, coastal fisheries accounted for 62 % of the total marine production, amounted to 209,500 Mt (Munro, 1955). The contribution from the coastal fisheries of Jaffna was estimated at about 4.5 % of the total marine fish landings in Sri Lanka in 2009 (Anonymous, 2011). Gurunagar landing site belongs to Jaffna west Fishery Inspector (FI) division within 14 FI divisions (Ministry of Fisheries, 2013). Fishing is an ancient occupation for the people in Gurunagar which is one of the major populated areas, contains 9159 people who directly depend on the fishery (Anonymous, 2011). Those who are engaged in coastal fishing and fishery related activities.
Assessment of the current trends in capture fisheries at Gurunagar including biological and socio-economic aspects is the key for policy development, better decision making and fisheries management. It supports to manage fisheries and aquatic resources that results in a better public image and sustainable fisheries in the future through data gathering, analysis and research (Anonymous, 2015). Gurunagar fishery is a complex system of interacting factors incorporating the state of the biological, social and institutional constraints, economic and cultural beliefs (De Graaf et al., 2015). It is necessary for predictive assessment of future outcomes of alternative management measures, detail on fishing operations, fishers and the environment required to manage the fisheries. The aim of this study is to monitor and assess the status of stocks that are being fished. It is interpreted in relation to catch quotes, falling total landings and changes in the fish population and species composition.
The yield is an important indicator of fisheries performance, which forecast of sustainable landings that good management should be able to achieve (Bapat and Kurian, 1981). Further the fishermen engage in fishing activities using various kinds of fishing methods basically different gears, different fishing vessels and different methods of fishing (NARA, 2008). Apart from this, their fishing activities in this area have been regulated with fishing communities and fishermen societies (Raguparan, 2013).
In this study, the components of fish, fishermen, fishing craft and fishing gear exist in this particular fishery were analyzed to determine the present status of coastal fisheries in Gurunagar. These findings give a brief idea to the stakeholders of this fishery in this region for sustainable fishery management and ecosystem and economic stability for local community. And also, this study can support the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Development by providing required information to develop the harbor in future.

Materials and Methods
Geological coordinates of Gurunagar are the latitudes of 9°38'57"N and the Longitude 80°1'8"E which was selected as the study area ( Figure 1) for this research during the period from April to June, 2015. Primary data were collected in fish landing site, over a three month study period. Catches from any type of 70 fishing crafts per day were randomly selected. Weights of the catches were recorded based on species and gear. The number of operating crafts per day, fishing craft types used in a selected day, types of fishing gear differed with the variety of fishing crafts and number of fishing days for each type of fishing crafts were collected to analyze the fish production at Gurunagar fish landing site.
Secondary data such as fishing population, fishermen societies, facilities of the landing site were collected from the Department of Fisheries and through the direct observation and discussion with fishermen.

Results and Discussion Socio-economic status of Gurunagar fishing community
In this study all illustrations described that the strength of the Gurunagar landing site in consistence production of fishery products is its relatively huge number of individuals (9159) in the fishing community and active fishermen (3100). Sirakuvalai fishery, trawl fishery, auctioneer and fishermen co-operative societies regulate the fishing activities in Gurunagar fish landing site. A number of 30 auctioneers and 20 retailers have been involved in the marketing of the fishery products.
Women role in fishing activities at Gurunagar was significant. They are involved in the activities of net repairing, net mending, sorting of catches, selling fishery products, dry fish production and collection of seashells. Their working hours per day vary with seasons.
The economic status of a fishing family living in Gurunagar may not be a constant. It fluctuates with season, climatic condition, fishing effort and investment in fishing gear. The people who involved in fishing activities can broadly be categorized as fishing craft owners, labors, auctioneers, retailers and dry fish producers. The monthly income of a person may differ from LKR 20,000 to 75,000 according to the occupation.

Fishing Techniques
The fishermen in Gurunagar have been adapted to several fishing gear and fishing methods for decades (Table 1 and 2). Even though they were not highly modernized, the operated depth ranged from 6 to 40 feet and also a numerous number of species such as small and large pelagic species, demersal fishes and prawns were being exploited by these different forms of fishing gear (Chitravadivelu, 1990a) using different fishing methods (Chitravadivelu, 1990b).

Thivviyan and Jayakody
Present status of coastal fisheries at Gurunagar Usually used in bottom. Perpendicular height is 9'.
It contains 3 nets.

Targeted species -Shrimp and lobsters
Trawling net

Buffer fish
Consists of funnel shaped belly, cod end wings and long ropes.
It is fixed on vessels and pulled along the ocean area.

Mesh size 1.25 inches
Used in IDAY crafts.

Squids
Installed in a shallow water body against the lagoon mouth.

Used in the MTRB vessels
Brush Park Leaves Cuttle fish Leaves are installed in sea floor during the spawning season of cuttlefish. Cuttlefish lay their eggs on the leaves and stay there. Then they can be caught by using the hooks and nets.   The average fish production was 128 tons for three months study period (Table 3). Most of the fish are caught from IDAY and OFRP. Around 10 ton species caught from Sirakuvalai fishery. Most of the days of a month fishermen used the Sirakuvalai for fishing. But the average production was less compared to OFRP and IDAY. Other crafts such as OFRP and IDAY have less number of vessels and operate in few days in a month. Therefore the average fish production was less compared to Sirakuvalai.

Figure 2: Production of different fish families from fishing crafts
As shown in this bar chart (Figure 2), families Penaeidae and Carangidae were caught in large amount throughout the study period. Family Mugilidae species were caught in high amount in the month of May. Types of fish species caught vary in all three months from the catch of both crafts such as OFRP and IDAY.

The fish species composition from Sirakuvalai fishery
Sirakuvalai fishery was the significant method in Gurunagar fishery. According to that this graph showed the percentage distribution of fish families caught from Sirakuvalai fishery (Figure 3). Sixty one percentages of Penaeidae species caught and it was accounted the highest percentage compared to other species in this fishery. Family Portunidae and family Loligolidae were caught less than 15%. While estimating total production of Sirakuvalai fishery, family Penaeidae had contributed large amount of nearly 7 tons and the month of highest catch, was April. Other species caught less amount and they showed the highest catch in June.

Species
The target fish species in Gurunagar include small pelagic and large pelagic species, demersal fishes and prawns. The smallest pelagic species of sardine, herring and the demersal species of shark, catfish, jack, trevally, rays, emperors and shrimps were caught. Species composition and size vary with the type of gear, techniques and location. A total number of 28 fish species (Table  4) from 22 families were recorded at Gurunagar landing site (De Bruin et al., 1994). The most common families were Penaeidae, Siganidae, Gerreidae, Chanidae, Trygonidae, Carangidae and Portunidae (Figure 4). Shrimp fishery is important in this site. The common prawn species are Penaeus semisulcatus, Penaeus monodon and Penaeus indicus. Families carangidae, Mugilidae and Penaeidae species were caught in large amount than other species from families Chanidae, Portunidae, Lethrinidae and Gerreidae (Munro, 1955).

Problems by short facilities
The findings indicated in terms of production, Gurunagar is one of the highly productive landing sites in Jaffna. But this region has no harbor facilities which includes for landing and distributing fish and accessing land and navigable water, for commercial demand, and for shelter from wind and waves.

Figure 3: Composition of fish families from Sirakuvalai fishery
Even though huge amount of fish was brought into the landing sites, there is no proper way for landing and sorting fish. Usually fish were sorted out on the boat. Entering another boat into the landing site was problematic which leads damaging fish. And also unwanted or by-catch organisms were discarded at sea. Boat repairing was done in the coast. Remaining oil, paint, other materials such as wood shavings, screw were thrown into the sea. Pollution happens due to waste disposal in the sea which leads fish killing and their habitat. So the future stock will be declined.
Nets were put in the seaside in bulk. Nets were mixed together and the separation of them is also difficult. There was no place for mending nets. Fishermen face such difficulties as spreading nets in all places.  The ice factory located near to shore of Gurunagar landing site does not provide sufficient amount of ice to cater the demand of fishers. When the fishermen go to catch fish for long distance they need to have them for long time. It damages fish quickly. Fuel filling is done using oil filled cans due to no filling station in the coast. It consumes their working hours. And also fishermen have to store oil at home while they go for fishing at dawn or midnight.
Auctioning was done at Gurunagar landing sites for selling fish in small hut. Fish were sold for retail sellers and dry fish processing. Market trend is differed by the type and amount of fish caught in a particular day. Retail sellers purchase fish from fishermen and sell in markets or in small junctions. Usually small sizes, large amount, less marketable price fish are used for dry fish processing. Auctioning was done by president of fishing society or the leader of a boat. It is beneficial for selling fish in less time with less damage.
Some destructive fishing activities are also done in this area. In OFRP boat, trawling nets were used for catching shrimp. It leads to damage the bottom feeding organisms and the habitats. Untargeted population declines due to catching unwanted organisms in the bottom. Usually cuttle fish spawns in man-made or natural brush park area. While they come to spawn, fishermen catch them. If it continues the future stock will be rare.

Conclusion
The fisheries activities in this region are mainly conducted by two types of crafts and Sirakuvalai fishery. Sea cucumber, Lobster and Grouper fish species are dived and they were collected by those crafts of OFRP and IDAY. Divingcaught fish are also collected by those crafts.
A total number of 28 species, representing 22 families were identified in commercial landings during the study period and also the species diversity and size of the fish varied with gear types and operated crafts as the different gears are operated in different fishing grounds, during various fishing seasons and target different species. The catch rates per boat from Outboard Fiber Reinforced Plastic Boat were higher than In board Day boat. Total fish production was recorded as around 128 tons in these months. Production from Sirakuvalai was accounted for 7.4 % of the total production in the study area.
Commonly fish species belongs to the families of Peneaidae and Carangidae were the dominant species in the commercial catch during the study period. This shows the seasonal variation of fishing of species.
Commercial production and operating boats per day is relatively high. But the facilities in the Gurunagar landing site for anchoring boats, sorting the catches, auctioning, storing and distribution are not in the satisfied level.
Therefore, this study provides the information to enhance fisheries as the Government has a plan to develop Gurunagar anchorage to the level of a fully-fledged harbor.

Suggestions
It was difficult to find the CPUE from the catch information gathered from the commercial landing in the Gurunagar fishery. Because they use multiple gears at once and they switched to one from another based on the catch at that time. They sort the catch on boat at the sea mostly and rest at landing site. So it was difficult to separate the catches from the specific gear. However it can be sorted out with a controlled study.

Limitations
Fishing can vary seasonally, using fishing crafts and gears in this area. The study period is limited. Therefore, the fishing trend cannot be predicted for whole year.