Observations on the choodai fishery of Mandapam area

Abstract

In the economy of the fishing villages around Mandapam, there is probably no fishery of greater importance than that for sardines, locally called choodai. Beginning in late March or early April, the fishery extends up to October or November and is confined mainly to the inshore waters of Palk Bay, where specialised methods are employed for catching the juveniles. Devanesan (1932) has given a brief account of the food of Sardinella gibbosa, one of the species yielding the fishery; the bionomics and fishery of the same species have also been referred to in a note by Chacko (1946). Panikkar (1949), discussing the biology of the pelagic fishes of the world, has remarked on the occurrence of shoals of S. gibbosa on the South last coast of India. And recently, Prasad (1953) reporting on the swarming of Noctiluca in the Palk Bay, observed that this was responsible for the aet-back experienced by the choodai fishery early in the 1952 season. The salient features of the fishery, however, are as yet little understood, and this investigation, taken up at the suggestion of Dr. N. K. Panikkar, includes a study of the methods of fishing, the biology of the main species contributing to the fishery and the fluctuations in their abundance.