144 Indian J. Fish., 62 (1): 144-148, 2015 Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of coastal fsherfolk on climate change - a case study in Chennai, south-east coast of India Note R. GEETHA, E. VIVEKANANDAN, JOE K. KIZHAKUDAN, SHOBA JOE KIZHAKUDAN S. CHANDRASEKAR, S. RAJA AND K. S. GUPTA Madras Research Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, 75 Santhome High Road, R. A. Puram Chennai – 600 028, Tamil Nadu, India e-mail: geethaeconomist@rediffmail.com ABSTRACT Climate change will have strong impact on fsheries with far-reaching consequences on food and livelihood of a sizeable section of the population. The frequency and intensity of extreme climate events is likely to have a major impact on future marine fsheries production. Fishermen have excellent knowledge on the relationship between climatic, oceanographic factors and fsh catch. This knowledge enables them to switch their fshing activities with respect to species exploited, location of fshing grounds and gear used. Based on this backdrop, a survey was conducted to collect primary data on Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) from 200 fshermen in and around Chennai with a structured questionnaire. Fishermen believed that reduction in fsh catch in recent years is essentially due to overfshing (Garrett mean score : 82) and juvenile exploitation rather than climate change. Fishermen opined that current (62%) and wind direction/speed (28%) are the major climatic parameters affecting fsheries. Current from south to north direction which generally remains for nine months off Chennai leads to good fsh catch, since it is favourable for larval distribution. They believe that combined wind blow from south and west leads to coastal upwelling, which occurs during May-June every year for 45 to 55 days. Current fow from south to north yields more rocky fshes due to turbid water condition and leads to heavy catch. However in recent years fshermen were not able to predict climatic events like in earlier years due to large unexpected seasonal variations. Fishermen suggested that government should bring regulations on craft, gear and related aspects in order to ensure sustainable fshing. Keywords: Climate change, Climatic factors, Fishers perceptions, Garrett rank, Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK), Traditional knowledge Climate change has strong impact on fsheries with far-reaching consequences on food and livelihood of a sizeable section of the population. The frequency and intensity of extreme climate events is likely to have a major impact on future marine fsheries production. Fishermen have excellent knowledge on the relationship between climatic as well as oceanographic factors and fsh catch abundance. Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) also referred to as local or traditional knowledge is the cumulative body of knowledge generated and evolved over a long period of time and generations of experience (Grenier, 1998). It includes the skills, beliefs, norms, practices and behaviour patterns handed down from one generation to the next (Matowanyika et al., 1994). The past studies have reported the existence of indigenous knowledge on fsh habitats, migratory patterns, proper timing of fshing, fsh resource management (Berkes, 1993), traditional fshing methods (Dutta and Bhattacharjya, 2009), fsh behaviour and harvesting (Tuara, 1995). This knowledge is very essential to them since their livelihood directly depends on availability of fsh resources which could be applied for predication of fsh abundance. Fishing communities have often developed adaptation and coping strategies to deal with fuctuating environmental conditions. Greater understanding of how communities cope with and adapt to fsheries with extreme natural variations would assist in developing adaptation strategies for climate change (Vivekanandan, 2011). Fishermen are generally able to track seasonal and spatial variations in fsh stock availability and relate it to climatic variability. They are able to detect some of the variables such as speed and direction of wind and current, water mass movement and upwelling, and make