On the trend of prawn catches in bottom trawls in inshore waters off Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh)

From the results of fishing operations during 3 years (from August 1963 to July 1966) attempts were made to study the extent of availability of prawns for bottom trawls. It was found that prawns formed 22.5% of the total catch on an average of the catch rate of 12.3 kg per trawling hour. The prawns were found to be abundant during two periods from November to February and again from April to July. The depth range of 11-15 m yielded better catch rate with best frequency of the optimum catch per hour.