Rising trend in the fishery of the octopus Cistopus indicus (Orbigny, 1840) by trawlers at Mumbai

Abstract

The world landings of octopus increased substantially from 35,800 t in 1950 to 3,17,200 t in 2001 (Jereb et al., 2005). Major species of octopus that contribute to the world fishery come under the genera Octopus, Cistopus and Eledone. As many as 200 species of Octopodidae are known to occur in the world Oceans (Worms, 1983) of which about 60 are reported from the Indian Ocean (Roper et al., 1984)