The zooplankton standing crop showed three peaks of abundance, in March,
September and December, the first two peaks during the periods of high
salinity. In the order of abundance, the forms which constituted the bulk of the
plankton were copepods, cladocerans, cirrepede larvae, Lucifer, chaetognaths and
appendicularians. The copepod distribution was found to have characters common
both to that of the adjacent coastal waters of Bay of Bengal on the southeast
coast and to that of the Arabian sea on the southwest coast. The peak occurrence
of cladocerans during May-July was followed by the appearance of juvenile mackerels
in early August. Pelagic fish catch, consisting mostly of anchovies and
lesser sardines, showed clear peaks, closely following the primary and secondary
peaks of plankton. The peak occurrence of anchovies during September-October
seems to be in prey-predator relationship with ribbonfish, the peak of which
followed closely
