Indian marine fishery resources - Present status

India being a tropical country is blessed with highly diverse nature of marine fishery \nresources in its 2.02 million square kilometer Exclusive Economic Zone with an estimated \nannual harvestable potential of 4.414 million metric tonnes. The marine fisheries sector \nprovide livelihood to nearly 4.0 million people of India and meets the food and nutritional \nrequirements of a significant proportion of the population. Also, it contributes to export \nearnings of the country. Sustainable harvest of the marine fishery resources are necessary \nas over-exploitation of the resources is likely to harm the diversity and cause reduction in \nthe availability of some of the resources. Monitoring of the harvest of the diverse marine \nfishery resources of the country is being carried out regularly by CMFRI since its inception \nthrough a scientific data collection and estimation system from all along the Indian coast \nleading to fish stock assessment for deriving management measures to keep the harvest of \nthe resources at sustainable levels.