OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHOODAI FISHERY OF MANDAPAM AREA

Abstract

IN the economy of the fishing villages around Mandapam, there is probably
no fishery of greater importance than that for sardines, locally called
choodai. Beginning in late March or early April, the fishery extends up
to October or November and is confined mainly to the inshore waters
of Palk Bay, where specialised methods are employed for catching the
juveniles. Devanesan (1932) has given a brief account of the food of
Sardinella gibbosa, one of the species yielding the fishery; the bionomics
and fishery of the same species have also been referred to in a note by Chacko
(1946). Panikkar (1949), discussing the biology of the pelagic fishes of the
world, has remarked on the occurrence of shoals of S. gibbosa on the South
last coast of India. And recently, Prasad (1953) r^orting on the swarming
of Noctiluca in the Palk Bay, observed that this was responsible for the
aet-back experienced by the choodai fishery early in the 1952 season. The
salient features of the fishery, however, are as yet little understood, and this
investigation, taken up at the suggestion of I^. N. K. Panikkar, includes
a study of the methods of fishing, the biology of the main species contributing
to the fishery and the fluctuations in their abundance