Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

A STUDY ON DESIGN FEATURES OF GILL NET OPERATED IN DAL LAKE, KASHMIR, INDIA

Nimat Syed and Ashish Mohite

Abstract

A wide array of fishing gears is used across Dal Lake, one of them being Gill net. Due to the ecological stress from human activities, the lake system is not only shrinking in surface area but its water quality has also deteriorated and the aquatic life is also badly affected. As the fishing stock is decreasing this has led fishermen of Dal Lake to use even the banned gear, i.e. gill net for fishing to get a better catch. Gill nets were used to target large size fishes of Cyprinus and Schizothorax spp. Although banned by the government, gill net with varying mesh size was found to be used in all the fishermen villages/landing centers across the Dal Lake. The material used for gill net was PA monofilament with diameter ranging from 0.21 to 0.22mm. The mesh size recorded ranged from 50 to 100mm.