While there has been a marginal increase in the fish catch in Maharashtra in the last five years, the population of local favourites, including mackerel or bangda, is continuing to see a dramatic decline, according to the latest fish production report of Maharashtra’s fisheries department. The bangda catch has fallen by almost 63% between 2010-11 and 2014-15 according to estimates of annual fish landings in the report. The quantity of horse mackerel or kharba bangda has fallen by almost 83% during the same period. While the traditional bombil or Bombay Duck has also taken a hit, registering a 19% decline, the species that is growing fast on the Maharashtra coast is the sardine or tarli. The sardine catch has grown by almost 70% during the five-year span, rising from 39,529 tons in 2010-11 to 67,132 tons in 2014-15. Scientists say global warming and rising sea temperatures have attracted sardines from the south to Maharashtra’s waters. “The surface temperature of our coastal waters has risen and the sardine stock from the Kerala and Karnataka coast could be moving towards Maharashtra,” says V D Deshmukh, former principal scientist at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute . Mackerel has an inverse relationship to sardines, which could explain their decline, he points out. “Sardines and mackerels also have a 3-5 year cycle, which is why they appear to decline and then are found in abundance,” he says. Overfishing can explain the decline of several species including Bombay Duck. The decline in mangrove cover has also impacted the breeding ground for fish including small shrimps, the red snapper and the perch. The data shows that red snapper catch has declined by 47% in the five-year period, while that of small shrimps has dropped by almost 20%. The landings for perch have fallen by 30% in the same span. Besides the sharp rise in sardines, fish landings of the pomfret and black pomfret or halwa have also gone up, the data shows. Pomfret catch has risen by almost 13% in these five years. “However, this does not match the long-term trend which shows a dramatic drop in pomfret catch,” says Deshmukh. The rise in the catch of seerfish or surmai by almost 26% could also be linked to the rise in the population of sardines. “The surmai is a predator, so one can assume that a larger population of prey has increased the population of surmai. The rising catch of the rawas is heartening, scientists say. “For almost 20 years, the rawas was on the decline and had almost disappeared from the Maharashtra coast,” says Deshmukh. However, he is sceptical of data showing a rise in the overall fish landings in the state. The total fish landings in the state rose from 4.46 lakh tons in 2010-11 to 4.63 lakh tons in 2014-15, an increase of 3.78%. “The overall trend in Maharashtra for the last several years has been a decline in fish stock and catch,” points out Deshmukh.
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