A study on the oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps Val.) fishery at Kanvar during the period 1990- '98 was undertaken using the length frequency data collected from the purse seine landings at Kanvar Fisheries Harbour. Growth parameters obtained using VBGF were L-= 204(mm) and K = 1.6 (annual). Oil sardine attains a length of 163,196 and 202 mm at the end of I, I1 and III year of life respectively. The fishery showedannual variations with extremely poor catches during the 1993-'95 period. The total mortality (Z) and fishing mortality 0 rates were estimated to be 6.34 and 4.91 during 1996-'98 when compared to 2.44 and 1.01 respectively in 199W92 period. There has been a considerable increase of 39% in the effort expended by purse seine units operated along the Kanvar coast during 1996-'98 compared to that in the 199W92 period, and exploitation ratio(U) was 0.51 and 0.78 respectively during the two periods. Length wise estimates of F obtained using VPA indicated that it was maximum in the 80-90 mm (199W92) and 140-150mm (1996-'98) groups.