Prospects for coastal aquaculture in India

Coastal aquaculture is one among the age-\t \nold avocations of man. The Romans and the \t \nJapanese are known to have practised oyster \t \nculture in its primitive form for several centuries \t \nand the South-East Asian countries have been \t \ncarrying out fish culture for at least five \t \ncenturies now. While the developed countries/ \t \nwhere aquaculture was started in recent times, \t \nhave far advanced in the field with sophisticated \t \ntechnology, in the few developing countries, \t \nincluding India, which have traditional forms of \t \naquaculture, it still remains at subsistence level, \t \nalmost as it was in the distant past. But the \t \nrecent developments in coastal aquaculture in \t \nthis region signify the beginning of a new era in \t \nfisheries development with a thrust on the \t \nculture fisheries.