White bait resources of the south west coast of India

The most important landing is that there exists in the sea between Ratnagiri and Tuticorin a sufficiently large resource of Anhoviella spp. (Whitebait), which 1s at present exploited to a small extent only. The estimates of the Pelagic Fishery Project reveal that the total resource of whitebait at the time of its highest availability is about 1/2 million tonnes (0 . 5 2 million) which is over 50%; of the total annual marine fish landing in India