Recent exploitation trend of oil sardine along Tamil nadu - Pondicherry coast

The Indian oil sardine SardineUa lorgiceps.though a non-conventional resource of the east coast, supports now a regular fishery of high magnitude especially along Andhra Pradesh and TanJl Nadu - Pondicheny coasts. The estimated annual average landing from east coast during the period 1993-97 was 60.638 tonnes against 46.000 t obtained along west coast thereby showing the potential of this new resource, especially along the southern maritime states of the east coast. It has been observed that the oil sardine catch during 1993-97 increased to more than three fold in Andhra Pradesh from that of the previous five year period 1988-92 while along Tamil Nadu - Pondicheny coast the catch almost doubled and recorded 80% of the total oil sardine production of east coast.