The present study was conducted to gather information on traditional knowledge is being followed by Kombuthurai fishers. Kombuthurai is a small fishing village located in Thoothukudi district where they are following a unique fishing practice by hook and line method, without employing any fishing nets. Major and minor targeted catches and its peculiar fishing ground, determined hook size and bait fish usage for those fishery were documented based on their traditional knowledge. Likewise, the comparison study on the hand jigging operation of cuttle fishes with and without using Fish Aggregating Devices was carried out for the short term period in Kombuthurai. FAD is made up of purely biodegradable materials consists of floating, attracting and anchoring section that installed at small scale level for exploiting cuttle fishes. It has been fixed in the fishing ground the day before fishing and the location noted down with the help of GPS. The fishing season is June to September. The maximum catch reported was 860 kg/ boat/ day during July month by FAD-associated hand jigging. It enhanced the maximization of net profit to fishers, increased fishing efficiency and the catching rate of cuttlefishes almost 3-4 times. | Traditional fishing knowledge followed in kombuthurai along gulf of Mannar; a new approaches on hand jigging of cuttlefishes using biodegradable FAD
