A panel of experts, who met at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) on Tuesday, said a forecasting model would be developed for long-term prediction on the availability of the Indian oil sardine on a regular basis.
A collaborative research initiative partnering different institutions was required to develop the forecasting model, they said at the end of a day-long national sympoisum on the near collapse in sardine fish catch in India. They considered various reasons for fluctuations in oil sardine availability in the southern Arabian sea.
The panel expressed the view that added fishing pressure during the period of scarcity would lead to further collapse of the resource.
Unfavourable conditions
A model for regular forecasting on the fluctuations of oil sardine need to be developed. The fluctuations of sardine are mainly influenced by unfavourable conditions due to El Nino, stunted growth, spawning disruption, migration from normal fishing grounds and continued high fishing pressure. However, a collaborative research initiative was required to study the environmental impacts and climate change on pelagic fishery resources, the researchers said.
CMFRI Director A. Gopalakrishnan said the advisory given by the institute earlier regarding the decline of sardine was a remarkable step in analysing the reasons behind the fluctuation of sardine.
“A regular forecasting model will be made possible with the cooperation of different research institutes working in climate change, oceanography and fishery biology.”
Sardine genome
The CMFRI will also release a draft sequence of genome of sardine by the year-end. Even though the CMFRI has found that three types of sardines including Oman sardine have the same genetic structure, separate management strategies are required for the sardines.
Besides scientists from CMFRI, researchers from National Institute of Oceanography, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, Space Applications Centre of ISRO, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and Central Institute of Fisheries Technology presented their findings during the discussion.
