Sardine (mathi meen) fishing has turned risky for fishers indulging in destructive practices along Nagapattinam-Mayiladuthurai coastline. The Fisheries Department, with the support of Marine Enforcement Wing of the police, has tightened the noose around such fishers to prevent netting of juvenile sardine fish. Fishers tend to indulge in indiscriminate netting of the variety that command a huge market in Kerala. The confiscated fish caught adopting prohibitive practices are auctioned by the department. The catches are seized once the inspection teams undertaking mid-sea patrolling find the mesh with gaps lesser than 40 mm, and the size of fish to be lesser than 10 cm, the measurement specified by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin. In a crackdown last month, the department in Mayiladuthurai under the supervision of the district administration took action against operators of five mechanised boats and 73 country crafts for using banned purse seine nets, with gaps lesser than 40 mm in netts and for fitting engines with more than specified horsepower, in violation of Tamil Nadu Marine Fisheries Regulation Act 1983. The Mayiladuthurai administration has formed four inspection committees to monitor the entry and exit points of the sea in keeping with the directives of the State government and the High Court advocating strong controls on the mesh size of nets as well as outright ban on practices such as bull trawling, in which massive nets sweep everything up from the sea floor.
The minimum legal size of fish is taken note of by the inspection teams to curb the catch of juveniles before they can spawn and replenish the population. The demand from expanding fishmeal plants has also prompted fishers to net juvenile sardines indiscriminately, according to senior officials. The extent of catch of Indian oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps), a staple food in Kerala and a mainstay of its fishing industry, plunged to 45,000 tons in 2016 in that State after a record-high catch of 390,000 metric tons in 2012, prompting the ICAR – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute to undertake a study to determine reasons for decline in sardine fishery along Kerala coast. In a move to protect the resource, the department restricted fishing of juveniles of fishes based on scientific advisory by CMFRI and the Minimum Legal Size (MLS) was introduced for 14 species. For sardine, the MLS was 10 cm. To cater to the demand of consumers in Kerala, fishers in Tamil Nadu fit their country crafts with double engines of high horsepower to reach fishing area faster and harvest larger shoals. Having enforced tighter controls, officials, on their part, are hopeful that the periodic crackdowns would have the desired deterrent effect.
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