It describes the importance, status, threats, issues and solutions for sustainable development of fisheries in India. Management , development of infrastructure and other methods are detailed

1. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF MARINE FISHERIES IN
INDIA
MEGHAGUPTA

2. Marine Fisheries
• Its proportion in total fisheries production has
decreased though because coastal
aquaculture production has increased, and
both of the capture fisheries subsectors have
not been growing
• Marine capture fisheries has been the main
subsector of capture fisheries

3. Sustainability
• Sustainable Fishery is the one that is
harvested at a sustainable rate where the fish
population does not decline over time
because of fishing practices.
• According to FAO
• 17% - Overexploited
• 7% - Depleted
• 1% - Recovering from Depletion

4. Characterization
• Marine capture fisheries can be characterized
as SSF and LSF.
• The fishing boats, which are non-powered,
outboard powered and inboard powered
boats less than 10 gross tonnage (GT), as well
as the fishing gears generally operating
inshore, are considered as SSF. Also, coastal
fishing operations without boats are included
in SSF. The fishing boats of more than 10 GT
and the fishing operations conducted offshore
are LSF.

5. Differences
Large-scale fisheries (LSF) Small-scale fisheries (SSF)
1. Otter board trawl 1. Mackerel gill net
2. Pair trawl 2. Pomfret gill net
3. Beam trawl 3. Mullet gill net
4. Purse seine 4. Shrimp trammel net
5. Anchovy purse seine 5. Crab gill net
6. King mackerel drifting gill
net
6. Squid trammel net
7. Mackerel encircling gill net 7. Other gill nets
8. Push net 8. Squid falling net
9. Deep water set net 9. Other cast nets
10. Hand push net
11. Long line
12. Hand line and pole & line
13. Set bag net
14. Fish trap
15. Crab trap
16. Squid trap
17. Shallow water set net
18. Other stationary gears

6. 8129 km
2.02 m km2
0.50 million km2
0.18 million km2
3202
3.5 million
0.9 million [20% in mech., 20%
moto., 60% in arti.]; 30% posses
ownership of fishing vessels
Physical Component
Length of coastline
Exclusive economic zone
Continental shelf
Inshore area (< 50 m depth)
Fishing villages
Human Component
Marine fishers population
Active fishers population
Component Profile
Infrastructure Component
Landing centers 1332
Major fishing harbours 6
Minor fishing harbours 27
Mechanised vessels 58,911
Motorised vessels 75,591
Non-motorised vessels 104,270
Profile of Indian Marine Fisheries

7. Craft Length (m) Engine power
(hp)
Mechanised
Trawlers 9-20 150 -400
Gillnetters 7-14 80-100
Purseseiners 11-15 100-120
Dolnetters 10-15 80-100
Ringseiners 10-20 85-120
Pole & liners 10-12 100
Motorised (with > one outboard motors)
Plank-built canoes 8-22 35-120
Plywoodboats 10-17 40-65
Motorised (with one outboard motor)
Catamaran 5-7 2-5
Dugout canoes 5-7 2-10
Plank-built canoes 5-12 2-25
Plank-built boats 7-9 8-15
Plank transom canoes 7-9 8-15
Plywoodboats 9-12 8-15
Non-motorised
Catamaran 5-7 -
Dugout canoes 5-7 -
Plank-bulit canoes 5-12 -

8. AQUACULTURE
• Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and
saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and
can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the
harvesting of wild fish.
• According to the FAO, aquaculture "is understood to
mean the farming of aquatic organisms including fish,
molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Farming
implies some form of intervention in the rearing
process to enhance production, such as regular
stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc.
Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership
of the stock being cultivated.

10. Issues
• Declining catches and overfishing in coastal
waters
• Post-harvest losses (discard, spoilage, reduced quality)
• Habitat degradation (industrial waste, domestic
sewage, pesticides etc)
• Climate change
• Illegal, unreported and unregulated landings
• Poor implementation of regulations (eg; mesh
size

11. ISSUES
Climate
Change
•Decreased Monsoon Rainfall
•Increase in the phytoplankton biomass
Oceanic
Sharks
•sharks are landed as by-catch.
•deep-sea chondrichthyan landings exceeded two tonnes a day.
Oceanic Tuna
Resources
•Leads to fishing overcapacity
•Deterioration could eventually lead to a reduction in catches.
Deep Sea
Shrimps
•High operational cost, high risk and efforts, lack of skilled and trained manpower, low
market price realisation, abundance of discards, poor quality of shrimps, low level of
harvesting technology perceived a major hurdles in deep-sea shrimp fishery sector.

12. Management and conservation of the
resources
plans
Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM)
better than single species mgmt, ecosystem evaluation and modeling, canpredict
changes
Bycatch reduction- BRDs and sem pelagic trawling
Capacity reduction- limit entry, buyback
Understanding climate variability and fisheries-
improved information on climate and effects made available
Implementation of CCRF -overexploitaton of stocks, damage to
ecosystems, trade issues: ecolabeling
Natural hazards – disaster management
Mariculture- potential mariculture siteidentification

13. Development of Infrastructure-
post harvest loss-15%, public investment, VMS, better domestic
marketing
Diversification of vessels and deep sea
fishing- 1.3 lakh t of deep sea resources- tuna longliners and squid
jiggers
Diversification of products -value added products
Utilisation of fish waste to useful products
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)-area to expand to
7.12%

14. Open Access Fishing is Governed
by
• Indian Fisheries Act, 1897
• The Wild Life (Protection) Act,
1972
• MFR (regulation) Bill, 1978
formulated after the EEZ
declaration
• MFRA of maritime states enacted
from 1980 in all maritime states
• Maritime Zones of India Act, 1981
• Environment (Protection) Act,
1986
Primary aim is to prevent and minimize disputes among differentsectors
Drawback
no entry restrictions, retire
old fishing fleets, no legal
action against violators

15. MARINE PROTECTED AREAS
(MPAs)
• Currently, there are 31 MPAs (majority in A&N)
• The current area under MPAs is 6.16 per cent of the
area in the coastal biogeographic, which is proposed
to be expanded to 7.12 per cent
• Oil wells in Bombay High and Godavari Basin also
function as MPAs

16. Other Harvesting Methods
• Commercial fishing uses many different methods
to effectively catch a large variety of species
including the use of pole and line, trolling with
multiple lines, trawling with large nets,
and traps or pots.
• Sustainability of fisheries
is improved by using specific
equipment that eliminates
or minimizes catching
non-targeted species

17. LAWS
• National Environment Policy 2006 -ensure the
integrity of the fisheries resource and the
fishers and the environmental requirements of
each
• Laws related to trade- A clear policy should
be considered specifying the roles of agencies
in relation to fisheries and to each other

18. SOLUTIONS
• Enhancement of coastal stocks through sea-
raining
• Creation of artificial fish habitats in inshore
grounds
• Limited entry, effort rational tin and closed fishing
seasons
• Gear,Area temporal restrictions and mesh size
regulation prevent growth of overfishing
• Monitoring ecosystem health
• Environmental awareness
• Intensifying the exploitation in offshore grounds
by mechanized vessels

19. “Learn to respect fish as our food and we
can improve the quality of the fish”

20.  Abdussamad, E.M. and N.G.K. Pillai (2009). Significance of small pelagics in the
marine ecosystem in sustaining the stock and fishery of Indian seas. In: Marine
Ecosys tems Challenges and Opportunities" Book of Abstrac ts, p. 106-107, Marine
Biological Association of India, February 9 -12, Cochin
 Responsible Fisheries in Marine Ecosystem : edited by M. Sinclair and G.
Valdimarsson
 J. R. Beddington1, D. J. Agnew1, C. W. Clark (2007) . Current Problems in the
Management of Marine Fisheries
 (Joshi et al' J 2008; Akhilesh et al., 2009)
 FAO (2008) Report of the FAO Workshop on vulnerable ecosystems and destructive
fishing in Deep sea fisheries, FAO Fish Rep. No. 829, FAO, Rome:18 p.
 Key tuna and tuna-like species in the IOTC Area of Competence Catch (2012)
Average Catch (2008-2012) Status of Stocks
REFERENCES