Marine fish landing along the mainland Indian coast during 2022 stands at 3.49 million tonnes, an increase of 14.53% over the previous year and more than 28% over 2020, the COVID-19-affected year.
Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) data released on Thursday said Tamil Nadu accounted for the largest volume of marine fish landings in India with 7.22 lakh tonnes or 20.69% of the total landings. Karnataka saw 6.95 lakh tonnes of landings and Kerala recorded 6.87 lakh tonnes.
The key feature of 2022 is that it has been a “comeback year of sorts for the oil sardine (S ardinella longiceps)“, which is one of the favourite fish varieties in the country. Oil sardine landings rose 188.15% in 2022 compared with 2021 and stood second among marine fishes landed along the Indian coast. CMFRI scientists called “phenomenal” oil sardine landings along the southern districts of Maharashtra during 2022.
While oil sardines made a comeback, Indian mackerel, with total landings of 3.28 lakh tonnes, remained the largest variety in terms of volume. Mackerels accounted for 9.39% of the the national total, oil sardine at 2.51 lakh tonnes formed 7.2% of the total landings, ribbon fish accounted for 2.27 lakh tonnes (6.49%), cephalopods volume was 2.06 lakh tonnes (5.89%), and threadfin breams accounted for 1.99 lakh tonnes (5.69%).
Favourable weather
Another key feature of 2022 was that calm weather conditions favoured continuous fishing activities during the year. Even though a super cyclone emerged in the Bay of Bengal in May, fishery was unaffected as it was during the period of the fishing ban, CMFRI said.
Marine fisheries account for more than 40% of total fish production in the country. It is an essential component of the country’s economy, not only providing a large number of jobs but also meeting the requirement for protein-rich food at affordable cost. Besides, marine fisheries earn much-needed foreign exchange for the country.
The CMFRI data showed that among the three different categories of crafts used for fishing, mechanised fishing vessels accounted for 2.85 million tonnes (82.0%), motorised fishing crafts accounted for 0.61 million tonnes (17.0%) and non-motorised fishing crafts accounted for 0.04 million tonnes (1%) of the total landings.