Fishing crafts in reservoirs of India

The floating and movable platforms used for fishing operation on which the fishers operate the fishing gears are called crafts. Generally, the coracle, catamaran, dingy, and country boats are used to capture the fishes from the reservoirs. These are generally small, wooden, nonmechanised and transported easily to remote areas.

Fishing crafts used in reservoirs

Coracle

Coracles are light in weight, bowl shaped boats with a frame of woven grass, reeds, or saplings covered with hides. Over the years, these circular crafts were constructed by interwoven strips of bamboo and covered with water proof materials such as plastic bags coated with a layer of coal tar. The boat size ranges between 1.50 – 2.00 meters dia. The coracle weight ranges between 10 – 15kg. A single oar is used to propel the coracle. Two fishers conduct the fishing in a coracle. Gillnet and long line are the common fishing methods. Apart from being simple and inexpensive, these are durable (2 – 3 years) and have good movability in all water bodies. It is profoundly used in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Float with sealed tins or Plastic cans

The fishers use the empty ordinary plastic cans or oil cans with 5 – 10 L capacity. Two cans are tied together using a piece of rope, the distance between the two cans is about one feet. While fishing, these are placed between the legs - one in the front and another in the backside. The upper portion of the body remains above the water and fishers are able to operate the net and paddle for some distance. Typically, this kind of craft is operated in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Catamarans

It is made of wooden logs (3 – 5 nos.), which are tied with ropes. The oar and sail are use to propel the catamarans. The pair boat is used for seine net operation; individual boats are used to operate the longline and cast netting. These are locally called Teppa in Tamil Nadu and chalathadi in Kerala.

Canoe

It is made by hallowing out of a single palm tree of varying sizes of 6-10m long and 2ft wide. One end of this is bulbous and wide and the other end is narrow. It is propelled by Oar. Traps, cast nets, gill nets are operated from these canoes with a crew of one person in the reservoir.

Dinghy

It is the most popular fishing craft in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. It is plank-built, flat-bottomed canoe, 2 – 3m in length and 0.6 – 0.7m in width. The other, less common variety is the Bengal type dinghy, which is 5 – 7m in length. It has the additional facility for setting sails for wind propulsion. 2 – 3 fishers operate each boat.

Hodi

The traditional fishing boat of Car Nicobar, Hodi is operated in the near shore waters. These boats cannot be operated in the high seas due to small size, lack of mechanization and sophisticated equipments and poor endurance, stability and storing capacity. They are propelled by means of oar and outriggers which are slender poles secured at their inner ends by being passed through the holes on the sides of dugout canoe close to the edge. The length of the hodis usually varies from 3 to 9 m, breadth 0.30 to 1.0 m and depth from 0.40 to 1.0 m.

References

1. Dawson, P., 2000. Fishing gear for reservoirs and inland water. Central Institute of Fisheries Technology.
2. Kokate, A.A., Bhosale, B.P., Metar, S.Y., Chogale, N.D., Pawar, R.A. and Nirmale, V.H., 2016. Indigenous fishing crafts and gears of Krishna River with respect to Sangli district of Maharashtra, India.
3. Manna, Das RK, Archan K, Krishna R, Karthikeyan M, Singh DN. Fishing crafts and gear in river Krishna. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge. 2011; 10(3):491-497.
4. Sreekrishna Y, Shenoy L. Fishing gear and craft technology. Directorate of Information and Publications of Agriculture Indian Council of Agricultural Research Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan New Delhi. 2001, 161-181.
5. Rajeswari G., Raghu Prakash R., Sreedhar U and Swa my Kumar M. Studies on fishing Crafts and Gears in Tandava reservoir, Andhra Pradesh, India. Int. Res. J. Biological Sci.ol. 4(11), 38-42, November (2015).