Investigations on the biology of Indian Mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier) along the Central Kerala coast with special reference to maturation, feeding and lipid dynamics

The Indian mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1817) is a pelagic fish that is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific region. Along the Indian coast its fishery is only second in importance to the oil sardine Sardinella longiceps. During the present decade (2000- 2008) the average all India landings was estimated at 1.29 lakh tones (t) most of which was landed along the southwest coast of India especially in Kerala and Karnataka. However, recent reports indicate that climate change induced variations in the marine environment such as sea surface temperature (SST) have impacted the mackerel and sardine stocks leading to the northward extension of their distribution ranges resulting in development of new fisheries targeting mackerel especially along the northwest coast of India (Asokan et al., 2009)