Next time, when you relish your favourite fish dish, you might be consuming the one that was caught outside Kerala. While the annual fish production increased by 40,000 tonnes to 5.23 lakh tonnes in 2016, Indian oil sardines – which kept Kerala among the top fish producing states – catch was a mere 45,958 tonnes, the lowest in two decades. Kochi-based Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) – which released the country’s annual catch – reported that since 2012, oil sardine catch had reduced considerably . The impact was reflected in the state’s total marine fish production. Oil sardines has dropped to third position in resource-wise landings behind scads and mackerels. Scads topped the list with 53,990 tonnes, a 92% increase over the previous year’s figure of 28,151 tonnes.D e s p i t e t h e i r much-lower edible prospect, fisher men obtained good market value for their catch from industries that produce poultry feed, manure, etc. The major contributors were ring seiners of Alappuzha and trawlers of Kozhikode. The second most abundant resource was the Indian mackerel, which had topped the list the previous year. In 2016, mackerel landings recorded a dip of 33% from 70,000 tonnes caught last year. The other three major resources in the order of their catch figure were oil sardines, threadfin breams and cephalopods respectively . Ernakulam retained its top slot in marine fish landings with 1.4 lakh tonnes (26%) as Munambam, Cochin and Vypeen harbours recorded a good catch. Kozhikode came second with 1 lakh tonnes (20%) with Beypore, Puthiyappa and Chombala harbours contributing a major share of the catch.Kollam was placed third with 90,584 tonnes, a decrease of 2,000 tonnes over the past year. Two major harbours, Neendakara and Sakthikulangara, did not record the expected catch.But, Alappuzha increased its landing fortunes by 20,000 tonnes with a total of 72,976 tonnes as motorized ring seiners played a key role. The second-half of the year witnessed a steep increase in the marine fish production with 33% of the landings being obtained in third quarter (JulSep), just after the trawl ban.The next quarter was the best as the figure rose to 35%. “We should look at two spells of trawling ban as envisaged in the draft amendment of Kerala Marine Fishing Regulation Act,” said CMFRI director A Gopalakrishnan. Kerala, with 188 marine fish landing centres, still remains one of the most productive regions in India. “Hilsa production has been increasing con tinuously, indicat ing that good man agement and sus tainable practices can help the indus try. There are indi cations that the oil sardine numbers too are increasing if one were to look at the initial catches recorded in the first quarter of this year,” he added. The mechanized sector was responsible for 63% of the total landings, with 3,31,260 tonnes, followed by motorized sector (1,85,357 tonnes or 36%) and non-motorized sector (5,933 tonnes or 1%). Among mechanized sector, multi-day trawlers contributed 2,19,656 tonnes, an increase of 30,000 tonnes over the previous year’s catch. The next major contributor was ring seiners that usually target sardines and mackerels. They contributed 58,617 tonnes. The motorized sector has traditional fishing vessels having outboard engines. Almost 61% of the landings were contributed by outboard ring seiners; their catch increased from 98,073 tonnes in 2015 to 1,13,534 tonnes in 2016. The catch per boat increased from 855kg to 890kg as they got good shoals of anchovies and scads.