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EveryFish

Fishing harbour, India

Veraval

One of India's largest fishing harbours, on the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat, landing ribbonfish, croakers and Bombay duck.

Veraval, beside the Somnath temple on the Saurashtra coast, is one of India's busiest fishing harbours. Thousands of trawlers and gillnetters work from it, and its seafood plants process fish for export, much of it to East Asia. Gujarat lands one of the largest marine catches of any Indian state, and Veraval and nearby Porbandar and Mangrol are its main ports.

Fish for export

Ribbonfish, croakers, threadfin breams, squid, cuttlefish and prawns are the bulk of the catch. Much of the ribbonfish is frozen and shipped abroad. Threadfin breams and other small fish go to surimi plants, which make fish paste for crab sticks and fish cakes. Bombay duck and pomfret are caught by dol nets, bag nets fixed in the tidal currents, and much of the Bombay duck is dried on racks along the shore.

Research and pressure

The Central Institute of Fisheries Technology has a research centre at Veraval that works on fish processing and quality. Scientists have warned that trawlers along the Gujarat coast catch large numbers of young fish, and that the fleet has grown beyond what the stocks can support. Fishers from Gujarat who stray across the sea border with Pakistan are often arrested, a long-running issue between the two countries.

Still to be written: Largehead hairtail, Bombay duck, Pampus argenteus, Blackspotted croaker.

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