Huge harvest of sardines brought to the fishing harbours of Kollam since Thursday has allayed fears that sardine population along the Kerala waters has collapsed. Sardines, traditionally harvested aplenty during June to August, were hardly seen this year, triggering fears of their decline.
But since Thursday, brisk trading of sardines is on especially at the landing sites of the traditional fishermen. Agents of fish meal factories with deep freezer freight trucks are making a beeline to the Vaddy landing site inside the Tangasseri fishing harbour complex for the past few days to seize the opportunity.
The sardines that arrived were mature ones.
For fish oil, feed
While sufficient quantities are reaching the markets to meet the local demand, the bulk of the sardine landings are being purchased by fish meal factories for fish oil extraction and afterwards as aquaculture feed and even poultry feed.
This demand is keeping the sardine price somewhat steady at the landing site auction halls. One the retail side one sardine fetched Rs.5 on Monday.
Fishermen attached to the Vaddy landing site said that on an average each basket of sardines fetched about Rs.2,500 at the auction hall. They said it was too early to say whether the rich catch could be attributed to a revival of sardine population along the Kerala waters. This could well be a temporary phenomenon.
Climate change
Fishermen said that if the sardine catch continues to be rich during the coming days it is an indication that it is not a climate change-induced collapse of sardine population. Kerala waters are a natural habitat to these fish and given the right conditions, sardines will return even if they leave for a short period, said a senior fisherman.
Recent studies by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute show that sardine numbers along the Kerala waters have been in severe decline due to changing ocean conditions induced by climate change. Sardine populations fluctuate with water temperature but a virtual absence of sardines for months together was not noticed earlier along the Kerala waters, fishermen said.
