The area of the sea south of Cape Comorin has been generally known as the 'Wadge Bank'. The area has been defined by the Fishery Survey of India (F. S. I) as that part of the sea bed between 76°. 30'E to 78°.00 E Long, and07°.00 to 8°. 20' N Lat. The area is about 4000 Sq. Miles in area The area of the sea south of Cape Comorin has been generally known as the 'Wadge Bank'. The area has been defined by the Fishery Survey of India (F. S. I) as that part of the sea bed between 76°. 30'E to 78°.00 E Long, and07°.00 to 8°. 20' N Lat. The area is about 4000 Sq. Miles in area The area of the sea south of Cape Comorin has been generally known as the 'Wadge Bank'. The area has been defined by the Fishery Survey of India (F. S. I) as that part of the sea bed between 76°. 30'E to 78°.00 E Long, and07°.00 to 8°. 20' N Lat. The area is about 4000 Sq. Miles in area

1. Submitted to,
Dr. Pramila S.
Submitted by
Ashish sahu
FRM
KUFOS

2. What is wedge bank?
 Wedge Bank is traditionally known to fishermen of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and
Sri Lanka since long back as a good fishing ground.
 Quilon and Wadge bank attracts many fisheries scientist for scientific
fisheries research, oceanographic study, ecological study etc.
 " Wadge Bank " (origin of name unknown)
 Sivalingam (1969) described an important fishing harbor lying off the apex of
the Indian peninsula and named it as the Cape Comorin Bank.

3.  This was later named by the Ceylon Fisheries Department as
the “The Wadge Bank”.
 It may also be defined as a place of marine environment, where
rich availability of fish food organisms are available.

4. Definition of wadge bank:
 According to Mitra (1989), The area of the sea south of
Cape Comorin has been generally known as the 'Wadge
Bank’.
Wadge bank
West coastSouth-east

5. Location of Wadge bank area:
 The area has been defined by the Fishery Survey of India (F. S. I) as that part of the sea
bed between 76°. 30'E to 78°.00 E Long, and 07°.00 to 8°. 20' N Lat.
 The area is about 4000 Sq. Miles in area.
 The continental shelf at the southern tip of India extends about 50 nautical miles from
Cape Comorin.
 Sloping gently from a depth of 10 fathoms close to shore to 50 fathoms, after which it
plunges to abyssal depths.

7. Map showing important fishing grounds of Wadge Bank, South India

8. Nature of Wadge bank:
 It is a fertile fishing found where rich marine biological diversity
occurs.
 Ground are rocky, so all banks are not trawlable.(only rollers or
bobbins can be used).
 The bottom is coarse yellow sand overlying flat rock to the 60 m
contour.
 Clear sand with stretches of flat rock beyond this and up to the
edge of the continental shelf.

9.  And others features like- few rough patches of pinnacle rocks, very limited
areas of bottom of mud.
 The ground rougher with many sea fans (Gorgonids), and sponges which
interfered with trawling and handling of catches .
 The Wadge Bank waters are moderate in their temperature (26° to 29° C.) but
high in salinity (35.8 to 36-7%).
 Plankton, specially Noctiluca, in the surface layers.
 Jellyfish are conspicuous among the macro-plankton and their presence affects
fish catches remarkably.

10.  The highest organic production in the west coast recorded is from the Wadge Bank area.
 The peak of the season for this ground is from July to October.
 Its resources were studied during the period between October 1981 - April 1983.
 The physical features of the water like under water current, tides and waves have less impact
on the fishes and aquatic animals of this region.
 Fishes prefer this region for feeding and breeding purposes (John,1959).

11. Major fishing harbour:
Kanyakumari, Tamilnadu
Colachel fishing
harbor
Chinnamuttom
fishing harbor
Southern Kerala.
Vizhinjam landing centre

12. Chinnamuttom fishing harbor
 Oldest and largest
 Mechanized fishing reports in the Southeast coast of India.
 Only two types of boats based on the type of material used for construction, viz., wood and steel.
 nowadays modified as steel vessels and used for fishing.
 320 mechanized, 90 motorized and 20 non-motorized fishing vessels.
 single day fishing practiced
 Electronic equipment’s tool like GPS (Global Positioning System), radiotelephone and mobile phones
were used for navigation purpose.
 Normally they are operating 100-200 m depths zone, because they are permitted to capture single day
fishing only.

13. Colachel landing centre
 Colachel landing centre also one of the major mechanized and motorized fishing ports of
Southwest coast of India.
 95. Mostly steel trawlers for multiday fishing.
 wooden trawlers for fishing in 40-65 nautical mile are used.
 It includes 325 mechanized (trawlers), 450 motorized (FRP boats), and 120 non-motorized
fishing vessels.
 using electronic equipment tool like GPS (Global Positioning System), Sonar, Echo sounder,
radiotelephone and mobile phone.
 Normally they are operating 100-200 m depth zone.
 The multiday fish and shrimp trawlers were used to capture fish along 300 m depth along
the Wadge Bank zone.

14. Vizhinjam landing centre
• completely specified for motorised sector like vallam and FRP boats.
• natural and artificial rocky habitat, andso it’s having hard and soft corals along the shore.
• As this fishing ground is not suitable for trawling, specialized gears line and gillnet fishing
were employed in these area.
• The depth of the operation is 60-120 m.
• using electronic equipment tool like GPS (Global Positioning System), Sonar, Echo sounder,
radiotelephone and mobile phone.
• They are mainly fishing in Wadge Bank marine zone of South-west coast of India.

15. Fishery Resources
 The Quilon Bank and Wadge Bank has a dominant nemipterid.
 The Gulf of Mannar area has a dominant population of barracudas.
 Nemipterids constituted 64.4% of the total trawl catch from Wadge Bank.
 The most dominant groups caught were obtained during July.
 The former being caught from 60-80 m depth range and the latter from shallow waters of
20 – 40 m depth range.
 During July-September period upwelling has been reported (Banse, 1959,1968).
 This nutrient rich water has lower temperature and has high salinity supporting many
fishery resources.

16.  As per studies by Karuppusamy (2016) the number of species identified were 425, belonging
to 20 orders and 95 families from three landing centre of Wadge Bank.
Sl. No. Fishes Contribution (%)
1. Perciformes 60%
2. Tetraodontiformes 6.6
3. Beloniformes 0.5
4. Anguiliformes 0.7
5. Laminiformes 0.7
6. Siluriformes 1.2
7. Chaimaeraformes 0.2
8. Squaliformes 0.2
9. Torpenidiformes 0.2
10. Zeiformes 0.2
11. Rajiformes 1.2

17. Demersal finfishes:
Off the southwest coast, dense grounds of demersal finfishes located
in the areas 7°/77° which is a part of the Wadge Bank.
Common name Scintific name
Threadfin breams Nemipterus japonicus, N. mesoprion
Bull's eye Priacanthus hamrur, P. tayena, P. macrocanthus
Goat fishes Mulidae
Major perches and
percoid fishes
Plectorhynchus crassipinna
P. lineatus
Epinephelus tauvina

18. Elasmobranch fishery:
 Forms one of the promising resource that could be exploited from the EEZ of India.
 The potential yield : 65000 metric tonne within 50 m depth & 103000 metric tonne beyond 50 m.
 Sharks and rays contributed equally while skates formed only a meagre percentage.
 Sharks Carcharinus spp predominated
sandbar shark
Carcharhinus plumbeus
bignose shark
(Carcharhinus altimus)

19.  Dasyatis spp were the predominant species of rays.
 The highest catch rate of elasmobranch: 2191 kg/hr in off the coast of Kutch area.
 625 kg/hr of rays in the Wadge Bank region.
 Fairly rich grounds of rays: off Cape Comorin in the Wadge Bank region at depth of 48 m.
 Good concentration of shark: off Cape Comorin and off Mangalore in the depth zone 0-50 m.
Common stingray
(Dasyatis pastinaca)

20. Carangid fishery:
Decapterus spp in almost all the sectors of EEZ especially from waters of 60 - 80 m depth
range.
Koheru: D. koheru
Decapterus is a genus of marine fishes of jack
family, Carangidae,
commonly known as mackerel scads, round scads,
or horse mackerel.
 Good concentration of Decapterus spp with a potential yield of about 1000 tonne along the
Wadge Bank area is reported by Sudarsan (1993).
 Gnathanodon speciosus (Forskal)
 Caranx chrysophrys (Bloch)
 C. malabaricus (Bloch & Schneider)
 Caranx carangus (Bloch) etc

21. Perch fishery:
 At many stations on the Wadge Bank and off Quilon the entire catch was constituted
by perches.
 Perches, important components of the demersal resources.
 Along the southwest coast which includes the Wadge Bank and the Quilon Bank
Production in % Area
29.8 shallow regions of up to 50m
64.8 51-100 m depth range
6.2 deeper parts of the continental shelf.
 The highest catch rate of 900 kg/hr in the 0-50 m depth was
obtained from the Wadge Bank.

22. Cephalopod fishery:
 The trawlers of the Fishery Survey of India have surveyed the area and revealed good
concentration of squids and cuttlefishes.
 Dayaratne (1978) has studied the cuttlefish catches from the Wadge Bank trawl fishery.
 The species (Sepia pharaonis) in the range of 10-36 cm was taken at depths of 33-69 m
from the area.
 Pharaoh cuttlefish
 (Sepia pharaonis)
 a large cuttlefish species.
 It is also known as seiche
pharaon.

23.  Sarvesan (1974) has briefly reviewed the fishing methods by
which cephalopods are caught in India.
 These include fishing with shore seines, boat seines hooks and lines, hand lines, trawl
nets and shore trap, for octopods.
Major species in catch,
1. Nemepterus japonicas
2. Lethrinus nebulosus
3. L. mahsencides
4. L. miniate
5. Spilotichthys pictus
6. Epinephelus undulosus
7. Lutjanus rivulatus
8. L. rangus
9. L. malabaricus
10. L. waigiensis

24. 11. Gnathodon speciosus
12. Citula malabaricus
13. Seriola nigrofasciata
14. Caranx stellatus
15. Alectis ciliaris
16. Selar crumenophthalmus
17. Arius thalassinus
18. Carcharinus sorrah
19. C. macloti
20. C.melanopterus
21. Spyraena jello
22. Scombremorus commersoni
23. S. lineolatus,
24. S.guttatus

25. Fishing in Wadge bank:
 Located 56 kms South of Cape Comorin wadge bank is mostly underexploited.
 Fishermen from certain villages of the district (Kanyakumari, Colachel, Kurumpanai,
Puthenthurai, Kollenkode) operate hooks and line during February to April and land
mostly perches.
 This fishing method is locally known as Thangal meaning 'halt' or 'stay', since the fishing
involves an overnight halt around the bank.
 'Dory fishing' or mother ship operation can be a suitable method to exploit the immense
wealth of this area.

26.  A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat
 about 5 to 7 metres or 16 feet 5 inches to 23 feet 0 inches long.
 It is usually a lightweight boat with high sides
 Aflat bottom and sharp bows.
 They are easy to build because of their simple lines.
 For centuries, dories have been used as traditional fishing boats, both in
coastal waters and in the open sea.

27. TRAWLER OPERATIONS
Description of trawlers that operated on the wadge bank, their period and
nature of operations and country from which they operated
Name of Trawler
Year Nature of
operations
Base of
operations
Violet 1907 Survey Ceylon
Lilla 1920 - 23 Survey Ceylon
Lady goschen 1928 - 30 Survey India (Madras)
Tongkol 1928 - 29 Commercial fishing Ceylon
Bul bul 1928 -35 Commercial fishing Ceylon
Raglan castle 1945 - 51 Commercial fishing Ceylon
Aringa 1947 - 48 Commercial fishing Ceylon

28. 1928-1930 by the Madras Government using the trawler "
Lady Goschen " as part of a general survey of the
southern coasts of India from Madras on the east to
Mangalore on the west (Gravely 1929, Sunthera Raj 1930,
and Sunthera Raj and Devanesan 1942).

29.  Not all of the bank is trawlable as parts of the ground are rocky.
 Some of this can be trawled with rollers or bobbins in the ground rope.
 These sea fans do not disintegrate easily and can tear the meshes, so that trawls made of very fine
twine are not be recommended.
 The trawl catches consist of sea bream. Rock cod, red snapper, blue spotted snapper, sharks, kingfish,
cat fish and other varieties.
 From October through June the catches consist of sea bream, rock cod, red snapper, blue spotted
snapper and skates.

30.  The demersal trawler Matsya Nireekshani undertook altogether 17 cruises of
average 20 days duration operating 669 hauls in the area, expended 1407 hrs.
of actual sampling.
 Highest percentage of perches was obtained from north-east region, while
Nemipterids dominate in south-west, west and eastern regions.
 Analysis of data on abundance shows that the catch per hour was 98.6
kg/hr.

31.  Depth wise, Threadfin bream exhibited higher density with increasing depth upto
128-183m.
 Cephalopods and carangids showed declining trend with increasing depth.
 Among the 95 families represented during the study period, the family Serranidae
was found to be dominant with 30 species.
 An exceptionally high catch rate (167.7 kg/hr) was recorded in March 1983 from the
south-east region in 183-223m depth suggesting better scope for further exploitation.

32. Production of wadge bank
 The catch from Wadge Bank indicated a high density was 67 kg/h.
 A highly productive perch ground yielding on an average of 94.26 kg/h was located
southeast of Cape Comorin below 50m depth.
 During July-September catch rate of perches obtained from this area was 153.4 kg/h
and in April-June 130.7 kg/h.
Migrant stock
appears on the bank during
South-west monsoon
Resident stock
present on the fishing ground
throughout the year
Two stocks
(Sivalingam & Medcpjf, 1957c;
Sivalingam, 1969c).

33. Utilization of recourses
 Utilization of fresh fish, by curing, frozen, caning.
 For diversified products and by-products.
 Utilization of unconventional fish resources for surimi preparation Species like: Trichiurus
lepturus, Epinephelus diacanthus.
 its exploitation and utilization for fish meal, fish feed and for protein.
 Cephalopods used as export trade.
 Used as both for food and as item (cuttle bone) for export.
 frozen squid and cuttle fish are exported products
 Used as squid-baited in long line fishing.
 Shenoy (1985) has briefly described the method for processing dried squid which has a potential
export market in Japan.

34. Conservation and Management
 Seasonal closure of fishery.
 Mesh size regulation and minimum legal size.
 Seasonal and spatial restrictions in trawl fisheries.
 Need for participatory management.
 to reduce the multiday fish and shrimp trawler on this ground.
 To regulate the mesh size in trawl net.
 Trawling shoud be avoided where coral reef patches more in this fishing grounds, like
Vizhinjam marine zone.
 The non-selective trawling may be regulated to protect the benthic fauna and diversity.

35. CONCLUSION
 The Wadge Bank is a rich Fishing ground from May to October.
 The resources indicate the need for diversified fishing like pelagic trawling,
squid jigging and line fishing in the rocky area.
 Need for research on the various crafts and gears used, oceanographic studies on
causes of migration and areas from which the fishes particularly the larger
carangids migrate.
 Any fall in the economic catch rate has to be watched before a large number of
vessels are introduced.
 Bobbin trawling might change the environment which has to be carefully
watched as causes of migration are not known.

36. REFERENCE
 G. N. Mitra, Catch Rates And Catch Composition Of Fish In The Wadge Bank In Commercial Fishing,
CMFRI Bulletin 44 Part One June 1989
 K.M.Joseph, P.Sulochanan, M.E.John, V.S.Somvanshi, K.N.V.Nair And Antony Joseph, Demersal
Fishery Resources Of Wadge Bank, FSI Publication Bulletin no.12*(1987).
 A.V.S. Murty, N . Gopalakmshna Pillai, M. Zaffar Khan*, K.U. Sanil kumar** and Shankar V.
Alavandi***, Variation In Fish Catches From The Continental Shelf Between Quilon And Gulf Of
Mannar And Its Relation To Oceanographic Conditions During The Southwest Monsoon Period,
Procceding of First Workshop Scientific Result FORV Sagar Sampada, 5-7 June.
 V.K. Pillai,S.A.H. Abidi, V. Ravindran, K.K. Balachandran, Vikram V. Agadi, Proceedings of the
Second Workshop on Scientific Results of FORV Sugar Sampada, 1996
 E. G. SILAS, Cephalopod Bionomics. Fisheries And Resources Of The Exclusive Economic Zone Of
India, CMFRI Bulletin 37, 1985

37. Thank you….