Fish Shoal Any collection of fish that have gathered together in some locality.Fish aggregations can be structured or unstructured. An unstructured aggregation might be a group of mixed species and sizes that have gathered randomly near some local resource, such as food or nesting sites. If, in addition, the aggregation comes together in an interactive, social way, they may be said to be shoaling. Although shoaling fish can relate to each other in a loose way, with each fish swimming and foraging somewhat independently, they are nonetheless aware of the other members of the group as shown by the way they adjust behavior such as swimming, so as to remain close to the other fish in the group. Shoaling groups can include fish of disparate sizes and can including mixed-species subgroups.
According to Blackburn and Tubb (1950) ” A fish shoal is a dense concentration of fish very close to or actually breaking the surface of the sea, in such a way that the observer sees a circumscribed and, at any given moment, a fairly well-delimited area whitened with foam, or coloured by the fish themselves or both.
The local name or traditional name of the fish shoal is called Meenpaddam or meen polappu
Traditional method of assessing the availability of fish was based on the color of the sea or meenpadam if the color is while /silvery means the fish will be silver Pomfret or Silver belly.Red color indicates ‘veluri/kera/lizard fish. Muddy water indicates availability of Fish is very high..
