Overall marine fish landings experienced an annual decline of 5.3 per cent in India. Oil sardines (Sardinella longiceps) recorded the sharpest fall of 51 per cent owing to increased temperature, environmental stress, change in fish spawning and lack of food. These data were revealed by the city-headquartered Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), informing that these landings reached 3.40 million tonnes last year against 3.59 million tonnes in 2014. Oil sardine catches totalled 266,000 tonnes during the analysed year against 545,000 tonnes during the previous year. Other resources that recorded drops were the penaeid prawn, ribbon fish, croaker, non-penaeid prawn and Bombay duck. On the other hand, lesser sardine (Sardinella fimbriata), Indian mackerel, threadfin bream and scad catches. “The high value fish Hilsa Shad, which is the main driver for the success of the fishery in West Bengal, showed improvement in the landings from 5,247 tonnes in 2014 to 20,659 tonnes in 2015, CMFRI stated. The report details that out of the nine maritime states and two union territories, Gujarat ranked first with 21.2 per cent of share towards total catch, followed by Tamil Nadu with 20.8 per cent share and Kerala with 14.2 per cent share. According to CMFRI’s data, the value based on the price at landing centre increased 26.3 per cent annually, to INR 401 million (USD 6 million) while at the retail level the registered growth reached 24.3 per cent, touching INR 651.8 million (USD 9.7 million). In volume terms, Kerala’s fish catch last year was the third highest in the country estimated at 482,000 tonnes, which makes up for 14 per cent on the national landings, but there is a 93,000 tonne fall in the catch compared to the previous year. Researchers attribute the oil sardine strong fall in catches in Kerala, which reached 55 per cent, to a number of factors, but they added that the oil sardine numbers tend to fluctuate as the shoals are highly volatile. For his part, V Kripa, head of fisheries environment management division, highlighted that oil sardine has been the most dominant species along the Kerala coast since 1961 but it was replaced by the Indian mackerel in 2015. “Such a steep drop in sardine catch has been attributed to various causes like the El Nino effect, changes in spawning and the considerable decrease of a phenomenon called upwelling – wherein colder water that is rich in nutrients ‘up wells’ from the deeper part of the ocean ‘fertilizing’ surface waters and creating high biological productivity,” Kripa explained. CMFRI Annual Report 2014-15 is available at: http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/10461/1/CMFRI%20Annual%20Report%202014-15.pdf

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