India’s marine fish landings are showing signs of revival with the annual fish landings in 2017 registering 5.6% growth as against the previous year, state-run Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) said on Tuesday.
The fish landing data also reveals that Cyclone Ockhi, at the end of 2017, had a devastating effect on the fisheries sectors of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Oil sardines also showed a revival in landings as against a decline in the past few years.
The total marine fish landings in India (excluding Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands) in 2017 was 3.83 million tonne, with Gujarat remaining at the top position for the fifth consecutive year by contributing 7.86 lakh tonne (20.5% of total landings) followed by Tamil Nadu and Kerala, said A Gopalakrishnan, director, CMFRI.
“This is the highest catch after record-high landings in 2012. Marine fish landings improved in all the maritime states other than Tamil Nadu and a palpable dip in the UTs of Puducherry and Daman & Diu. Revival of oil sardine in the western coastal states especially in Kerala played a major role in improving the country’s marine fish production this time,” he added.
However, the east coast witnessed a decline in the oil sardine catch with 83% drop in Andhra Pradesh and 36% in Tamil Nadu compared to 2016.
Indian oil sardine, which was showing a decreasing trend for the past few years, topped the list of marine fishery resources this time with a landing of 3.37 lakh tonne (8.8% of total landings) registering an increase of 38% across the country.
Indian mackerel, ribbon fishes, lesser sardines, penaeid prawns and non-penaeid prawns are the other major resources with respective landings of 2.88 lakh tonne (7.5%), 2.39 lakh tonne (6.2%), 2.27 lakh tonne (5.9%), 2.10 lakh tonne (5.5%) and 2.03 lakh tonne (5.3%).
The estimate of the value of marine fish landings based on price at landing centres across the country during 2017 was Rs 52,431 crore, with an increase of 8.4% compared to 2016.