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Fishes like sardine, Mackerel,Anchovies, Prawns, etc have the shoaling behavior,this is a collective behavior by fish These schools can become huge, moving along coastlines and migrating across open oceans.
Fish shoals are locally termed as meenpaadam/meenpulappu by local fishermen. In traditional practice, fishermen can identify fish shoals from a distance by eye sight. Traditionally fish shoals were identified by ocean colour, waves, bubbles, jumping of fish or flocks of birds hovering over the shoal etc. From the movement of water and colour of the sea, fishermen can guess the type of fish and their characteristics.Fish shoal was mainly detected by colour of the water. Presence of dark patches in the water with ripples indicates a good catch of Mackerel. Dark blue patches or black colour appear on the surface of water indicates a big shoal of Sardine. White colour indicates Silver Pomfret or Silver belly. Red colour indicates ‘veluri/kera/lizard fish. Muddy water indicates good catch.
