Pair trawl fishery for oil Sardine in Palk Bay

Abstract

Landings of Indian oil sardine, Sardinella longiceps were investigated at Rameswaram during November, 2015 – January 2016 period. It was exploited mainly by pair trawlers, which operate a trawl net, locally known as Rettaimadi. The oil sardine fishery by pair trawlers initiated was long back (Marichamy et al., 1992, Mar. Fish. Infor. Serv. T & E Ser., 17:18-19) but lack of transportation and absence of marketing avenues for oil sardine did not encourage adoption of this fishing method. However the current trend of neighbouring states to access these landings, encouraged the fishers to operate about 200 pair trawlers during the fishing season of 2015 -16. There were about 12- 13 fishing days in a month as per the government records. The fish merchants and agents from Kerala and Karnataka came to the landing centres with ice and lorries for transporting and marketing oil sardine, both fresh as well as spoiled ones for fishmeal plants. The estimated catch of oil sardine from Palk Bay Rameswaram for the season was 1,03,200 t. The Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE) varied from 5 to 20 tonnes (t).