Fish prices in Kochi go up by 33% as catch comes down

Kochi: Fish lovers, your daily diet of grilled prawns and mackerel curry is going to make a hole in your pockets. The fish prices in the city in both retail and wholesale markets have gone up by 33.5% and 36.4% respectively in one year time.
In other words, oil sardines that cost around Rs 84 per kilo last year now cost Rs 120 per kg. Similarly, price of seer fish has gone from Rs 341 to Rs 461 per kg this year; the price of prawns too have gone up from Rs 260 to Rs 427.
"There is a decline in oil sardine catch considerably over the past year," said head of fishery resource assessment division at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), T V Sathianandan.A study by the CMFRI showed that fish catch in the state declined owing to a number of causes, including increased temperature and environmental stress, change in fish spawning and lack of food.
Kerala's fish catch for the year 2015 was the third highest in the country estimated at 4.82 lakh tonnes which makes up for 14% on the national landings, but there is a 93,000 tonne fall in the catch compared to the previous year.
"Last year the total landing in the state was estimated at 5.76 lakh tonnes, which means that this year there is a 16.2% decrease. Of the 93,000 tonne deficit this year, 87,000 tonne decline was due to the unavailability of oil sardines," said Sathianandan.
According to researchers, the oil sardine catch in Kerala has dropped by 55% this year owing to a number of factors, but they added that the oil sardine numbers tend to fluctuate as the shoals are highly volatile.
"Oil sardine was the most dominant species along the Kerala coast since 1961. It was replaced by the Indian mackerel in 2015. Such a steep drop in sardine catch has been attributed to various causes like the El Nino effect, changes in spawning and the considerable decrease of a phenomenon called upwelling - wherein colder water that is rich in nutrients 'up wells' from the deeper part of the ocean ‘fertilizing' surface waters and creating high biological productivity," said V Kripa, head of fisheries environment management division.
While the catch of oil sardine and ribbon fishes have decreased in Kerala, other species like lesser sardines, Indian mackerel, threadfin breams and scads have improved compared to the previous year.