Traditional Fisheries

The ICAR‑Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR‑CMFRI) reports that trawl‑based landings did not show a palpable decline during 2021‑2025 and that 91.1% of the 135 marine fish stocks evaluated in India’s EEZ were deemed sustainable (Marine Fish Stock Status of India, 2022). Fisheries is a state subject; each coastal state enacts a Marine Fishing Regulation Act (MFRA) governing activities up to 12 nautical miles, including zoning, mesh‑size, gear rules, seasonal bans, size limits, and bans on destructive practices such as paired/bull trawling and artificial lights. The central Department of Fisheries implements the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), promoting Turtle Excluder Devices, sea ranching, artificial reefs, deep‑sea vessels, open‑sea cage culture and seaweed farming to protect traditional fishers’ livelihoods. ICAR‑CMFRI conducts long‑term monitoring using FAO‑recommended stratified multistage random sampling, generating time‑series data from over 1,300 landing centres along India’s 11,000 km coastline and running programmes on marine biodiversity, benthic health, trophic interactions and bottom‑trawl impacts. The information was provided by Minister Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh) in Lok Sabha.