Diversity and exploitation status of demersal fisheryresources in India

Fisheries are an important source of income and means of livelihood in developing countries, particularly in rural areas. Estimates by the Food and Agricultural Organisation indicates that capture fisheries employ over 27 million people worldwide, of which 85% live in Asia. Marine fisheries play an important role in food security and nutrition in developing countries. There is serious concern about the state of marine fisheries worldwide. While over-fishing is likely to have been the major cause of the serious setbacks, these have probably been exacerbated by habitat degradation. Fisheries sector plays an important role in the overall socio-economic development of India. The fisheries sector contributed 76,913 crores to the GDP during 2009-10 which is 0.96 per cent of the total GDP at factor cost and 5.4 per cent of the GDP at factor cost from agriculture forestry and fishing (Zacharia and Najmudeen, 2013). During 2015-16, the export of marine products from India reached over 9.45 lakh tonnes valued at Rs.30,421 crores and US$ 4.688 billion (MPEDA, 2017). India is one of major fish producing countries in the world contributing over 3 per cent of both marine and freshwater fishes to the world production (Srinath and Pillai, 2006) with third position in capture fisheries and second in aquaculture. India has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covering a total area of 2.02 million sq. km, i.e., 0.86 million sq. km on the west coast including the Lakshadweep Islands and 1.16 million sq. km on the east coast, including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and a continental shelf of half a million sq. km (Vivekananadan et al., 2003).