Dayaratne P. <br/><br/>
Fisheries for Seerfish (Scomberomorus SPP) in Waters Around Sri Lanka 

 - Muscat,  1989, 
 - 14p. 
 - Workshop on Tuna and Seerfish in the North Arabian Sea Region .
<br/><br/> Seerfiehes in Sri Lanka are economically important because <br/>of th eir high market value. However, there is no seperate fishery <br/>for seerfish . As in many other tropical fish eries the majority <br/>o f fish eries in Sri Lanka are multispecies and multigear.<br/>Seerfish are caught right round the island by many va rieties <br/>o f gear that are used mainly for large pelagic fish species. <br/>G illn ets, t r o ll lines and hand lines are the main pontributers <br/>to the production o f this va riety. Combination gears are used <br/>by most o f the fishing crafts and because o f the high market <br/>value fishermen tend to put more e ffo rt in catching seerfish <br/>with additional gears. They use t r o ll lines while sailin g to <br/>and from the fishing grounds and hand lines while they are operating <br/>main fishing gears, usually g illn e ts and longlines.<br/>The to ta l seerfish production in Sri Lanka has remained <br/>around 35^0 NT per annum during the past few years. This is <br/>about 2.5% o f the tota l marine fish- production. Though-this <br/>species is an economically important one in Sri Lanka, the <br/>available literatu re on this species is very lim ited. Jinadasa ( 1900) described the species composition, size range and age and <br/>maturity o f ScomberomoruB commerson from the west coast. Some <br/>information on seerfish are also available in publications on <br/>fish eries fo r large pelagics and tuna-like species (De Bruin 1970f Joseph--1985 and Maldeniya et a l 1987).<br/>The present paper describee- the d ifferen t methods of <br/>exploitation, production trends, seasonal variation in catches, <br/>species composition and the size distribution o f the important <br/>species o f seerfish in the waters around Sri Lanka.