Kochi, Jul 12 (IANS): Consequent to a drop in the catch of oil sardine from Indian coasts by 54 per cent, India's marine fish production in 2018 was recorded at 3.49 million tonnes, down by 347,000 tonnes compared to the previous year, the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) said.

The data, which was released by Kochi-headquartered CMFRI on Friday, also showed Indian mackerel (284,000 tonnes) is the most landed marine fish in the country during the year followed by cephalopods (221,000 tonnes), non-penaeid prawns (194,000 tonnes), ribbon fish (194,000 tonnes) and penaeid prawns (184,000 tonnes). The catch of sardine dropped to 155,000 tonnes all over India, from 337,000 tonnes in 2017.

Sardine catch in West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharashtra saw a drop of 201,000 tonnes, 95,000 tonnes and 86,000 tonnes, respectively.

Among the nine maritime states, Gujarat remained in the first position in the landings with 780,000 tonnes followed by Tamil Nadu (702,000 tonnes) and Kerala (643,000 tonnes).

CMFRI also pointed out that the estimate of the value of marine fish landings based on prices at landing centres across the country during 2018 was Rs 52,632 crore, with 0.4 per cent increase over 2017.

The Fishery Resources Assessment Division of the ICAR-CMFRI estimated the annual marine fish landings of the country through its online data collection system.