The Indian oil sardine

The Indian oil sardine, Sardinella longiceps Val, supports a neritic pelagic fishery contributing 2 to 33 % of the annual marine fish production in India. Though distributed all along the Indian coast the species sustains a commercial fishery of high magnitude along the coasts of Kerala, Karnataka , Goa and southern part oJ Maharashtra. During the last fifty years the annual all India production oscillated between 14.000 t in 1952 to 3 lakh t during 1968. Presently the west coast indicates a declining trend compared to an ascending pattern along the east coasl. The production from east coast surpassed that of the west coast contributing 52% of the all India production of 2.03 lakh t in 1998. The fishery along the west coast is known for its fiuctuating nature. Further, the species indicates a cyclic pattern of abundance. A variety of traditional gears were engaged in exploiting the resource till the introduction of modern and sophisticated gear like the purse seines in the late seventies and the ring seines in the late eighties. In fact oil sardine is one among the few species that have ever remained a subject matter of intensive research. The focus of this compilation is to present a comprehensive picture of the Indian oil sardine, its fishery, biology, stock, future prospects of exploitation and management measures needed for yield optimisation