Fishing gears operated in lentic and lotic water bodies of Cooch Behar district, West Bengal, India

A study was carried out to investigate different types of existing fishing gears employed by fishermen in lentic and lotic water bodies namely beefs, ponds and rivers of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, India. Observations revealed that various fishing gears are based on one or more factor such as behavior of fishes, microhabitat of fishes, physiography of water body, seasons of a year and so on. In the district of Cooch Behar about 22 types of fishing gears were documented, amongst them 8 are categorized as Net fishing gears, 2 as Tackles and 12 as Miscellaneous gears. Most of the fishing gears are fabricated by local people and fishermen with the help of locally available materials. The very small mesh size, of some fishing nets, catches all size groups of fishes and in turn results in depletion of fish diversity in the beels, ponds and rivers of Cooch Behar district.