India’s marine fish landings during 2014 are estimated to be 3.59 million tonnes, a fall of 5 per cent over 2013.
West Bengal, which contributed 2.1 per cent of the total landings, showed the steepest fall of 71 per cent, the volume having come down by 1.85 lakh tonnes year to year.
The estimates were released by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute here on Saturday. Marine fish landings in 2013 stood at 3.78 million tonnes.
Institute Director A. Gopalakrishnan said the variation in catch over last year was not alarming.
Gujarat topped the States in terms of quantum of fish landings with a catch of 7.12 lakh tonnes, which formed 19.8 per cent of the total catch. Tamil Nadu came second with 6.65 lakh tonnes (18.5 per cent), Kerala was third with a total catch of 5.76 lakh tonnes (16 per cent), and Karnataka came fourth with a catch of 4.74 lakh tonnes (13.19 per cent).
Oil sardines continued to dominate with landings estimated at 5.45 lakh tonnes, representing 15.2 per cent of the landings. Indian mackerel was 2.37 lakh tonnes (6.6 per cent), and carangids came third with a total landing of 2.10 lakh tonnes (5.9 per cent).
Kerala continues to be the State where the largest quantity of oil sardine is landed. However, CMFRI scientists at the press conference said that 2014 saw oil sardines being landed in all the maritime States for the first time. It used to be confined traditionally to the States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka.
Hilsa shad, highly valued in West Bengal, took a big hit during 2014 as landings came down to around 3,000 tonnes from the previous year’s level of 40,000 tonnes.