Small Scale Cage Farming and CommunityDevelopment in Fishing Villages

The estuarine fishery which is one of the subsistence fishery of Indian coast is on a decline due to salinization of estuaries. Salinization is occurring mainly of two reasons, one the anthropological interventions to divert fresh water for irrigation and domestic and industrial use and the second one is the natural cause, due to slow process of climate change inflicted sea level rise which make most of the estuaries of India to remain more and more saline water dominated over the period of time. The impact of this is being felt by the fishermen living along the estuarine coast who are being deprived of livelihood. It is at this juncture the small scale cage farming is introduced along the coastal villages to augment the fish production and also as an alternate livelihood option for coastal fishers. There is scope for culturing euryhaline species in saline creeks and estuaries by installation of small cages along the coast the Indian coast.