CONTENT

S.No. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No.

1 Abstract 2
2 Introduction 3
3 Physical profile and status of 4
fisheries
4 State fisheries department and 5
fisheries association
5 Exclusive economic zone 7
(EEZ) of India
6 Status of fisheries 8

7 Fisheries Law And Policy 15

Conclusion and 19
Recommendation
9 Acknowledgment 22
10 Reference 23

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ABSTRACT:
Fisheries management is not only about managing the resource fish, but also
includes managing the social system. Aquatic ecosystems and the social system
are both complex and change continuously. It is important to address what types
of uncertainty the combination of both systems, complex socio-ecological
systems leads to, their consequences and how these should be dealt with.
Successful or unsuccessful management outcomes are difficult to address
whether or not they are due to management efforts or natural changes. In
addition, uncertainties often lead to a short term management, since lack of
knowledge makes it difficult to act in a long-term perspective. This thesis
conceptualizes how to address different types of uncertainty prevalent in
fisheries management, with focus on natural process uncertainty, measurement
and estimation uncertainty, decision and implementation uncertainty, and
institutional and regime uncertainty. This was done by analyzing how three
theoretical approaches, namely co-management, adaptive management and
adaptive co management address these uncertainties. A comparison between the
literature study and this thesis‟ case study shows the corresponding factors on
how to deal with uncertainties in fisheries management and conservative
measures leading to sustainability fishing.

Keywords: Co-management , adaptive , Thoothukudi fishing harbour,

Wild Life Protection Act, Tamil Nadu Marine Fisheries Regulation Act,
Exclusive Economic Zone

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INTRODUCTION :
Thoothukudi District having a coastal line of 163.5 km stretches
from Vembar in the north to south of Manappad (i.e., between 8° 9' 00" to 9° 7'
30" N latitude and 78° 2' 30" to 78° 25' 00" E longitude). Thoothukudi fishing
harbour (TFH) is one of the oldest fishery ports in the east coast of India. Due to
its commercial and economic importance from the marine fisheries point of
view, nowadays it is considered as one of the major fishing harbours on the east
coast of India. For the sake of easy management the fishing areas are divided
into north of Thoothukudi and southern Thoothukudi . Of which the southern
area cover up to Chinna muttom in Kanyakumari district and northern side
covers up to Ervadi in Ramanathapuram district. TFH is a landing centre which
follows the unique rules and regulation of Tamil Nadu Marine Fisheries
Regulation Act and Wild Life Protection Act as well. All the mechanized fishing
vessels are operating above 3 Nautical miles from the sea shore and the fishing
time is restricted between 5.00 am and 9.00 pm. Single day fishing and the
fishery is characterized by multi-species, multi-fleet with multi-sized boats.
Even though multiday fishing is economically beneficial but it is not followed
for the sake of resource conservation and adherence to local socio-economic
constraints. The marine fish production of Thoothukudi fishing harbour was
highly fluctuating from 2005 to 2012 and the annual catch has declined from
32,472 tons to 23,957 tons. The reduction in catch may be attributed to
increased number of fishing units ultimately leading to less catch per unit effort
and higher cost for fishing. For the sake of economic benefit fishers may catch
the juveniles and non-targeted species as by-catch. Hence, there is a need to
sustain the marine fisheries resources for the future generation, therefore an
emphasis on management of the fisheries resource with different institutional
participation coupled with different stakeholders plays a vital role.

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Physical profile and status of fisheries:

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Latitudes 80º 4' N and 37º 6' N

Longitudes 68º 7' E and 97º 25' E

Neighbouring Countries :
North-west : Afghanistan &
Pakistan

North-east : China, Bhutan &

Nepal

East : Myanmar &

Bangladesh

South : Sri Lanka

Total area : 3.29 M km^2

Coastline : 7516.6

EEZ : 2.37 million sq. km.

Export value of fish : 579 billion rs.

Share of total fish production in GDP
: 0.8%

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State Fisheries Department and Fisheries
Associations:

Department of fisheries plays an important role in dealing with the issues related
to fishing regulation, conflict resolution and regulation of fishers welfare
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schemes. Additionally, the TFH has a fisherman cooperative society, of which all
the fishermen are members but it was differentiated into labour and owner
society

the mechanized boat owners are organized under the Thoothukudi boat owners
association. Each member of this association has ownership of single or multiple
fishing vessels. This organization comes under the labour union at the district
level. One of the major activities of this association is conflict management
between labour and owner, country boat and mechanized boat. For instance,
when a conflict needs to be resolved, representative from country boat and
another representative from mechanized vessel, have a meeting with association
along with officer from state fisheries department. Generally, two type of gear
damage issues are dealt by the association i.e. identified fishing vessel and non-
identified fishing vessel. The decision is made between the representative of
country craft and mechanized craft in the presence of officials from fisheries
department.
Associations are formed independently and as per need they formulate their
own rules and regulation within the association. For example, Muthu nagar
vessel association was divided into two groups on the basis of vessel size, are of
less than 50 m and more than 50 m length.
These associations also describe the banned fish species as well as creating
awareness towards the member. If any mistakes happened they won‘t get any
support from the association to escape on the crime. Due to single day fishing,
fishers are not getting enough time to get the catch, many days they returned to
shore without meeting the operational expenses. It may not be economically
viable but in biological point of view it is good and sustainable. To meet the
expense the fishers are forced to catch juveniles and non-targeted species.
Usually, fishing time is between 5.00 am and 9.00 pm. The fishing vessel has to
leave the shore at 5 am of the day and return back to the shore or enter in the
harbour before 9 pm. There will be a penalty for later departure and chain in the
entry point opened only after the payment. The time management was regulated
by State Fisheries Department.

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Wind season is traditional methods of identifying the fishing season till followed
by TFH fishers and on the basic of season they are categorized into four fishing
periods, such as ‗Sirukodai‘ between mid-April to mid-August, ‗Kontal kaatru‘
for the period of mid-August to September, October and November are rainy
season and ‗Vaadai Kaatru‘ during the month of December and January.

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EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (EEZ) OF
INDIA:
EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE OF
INDIA IS BORDERED TO THE
WEST BY PAKISTAN , TO THE
SOUTH BY MALDIVES AND
SRILANKA AND TO THE EAST BY
BANGLADESH ,
MYANMAR,THAILAND ,
MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA….

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Status of fisheries:
 Fish production by
MARINE = 37.1 %
source:
INLAND = 97.1 %

FISH PRODUCTION IN 2018-19

MARINE
INLAND

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 MARINE = 5.95 %
INLAND = 121.21 %

FISH PRODUCTION IN 2021-22

MARINE
INLAND

 Fish production in India :

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 Ecosystem over fishing :
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 Ecosystem overfishing occurs when the balance of the ecosystem is altered
by overfishing. With declines in the abundance of large predatory species, the
abundance of small forage type increases causing a shift in the balance of the
ecosystem towards smaller fish species.

 State wise fish production:

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 Composition of marine landing in 2022 :

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 Procedure for allocation of funds to fisheries
sector :

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
COUNCIL MINISTRY OF FINANCE

PLANNING COMMISSION
DIRECTION AND PLAN
PRIORITIES SIZE

WORKING GROUP

FUNDING DECISION RECOMMENDATIONS

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE

WORK PLAN

WORK PLAN

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Export trend of marine products from India :

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Fisheries Law And Policy:
The government of India has various acts, rules and regulations to conserve
the fish and aquatic diversity and judiciously utilize it for the well being of the
nation. The major legislatives are

1. Indian Fisheries Act of 1987,

2) Wild Life (protection) Act, 1972.

3) Forest (Conservation) Act 1980,

4) The Environment (Protection) Act 1986,

5) Biological Diversity Act. 2002,

6) Coastal Aquaculture Act. 2005 and

7) National Biodiversity Action Plan 2008.

The policies and strategies directly relevant to biodiversity include national

conservation strategy and policy statement for environment and sustainable
development, comprehensive marine fisheries policy 2004, Ministry of
Agriculture, National Fisheries Policy, National Biodiversity policy,
Environmental Action Plan, National Lake Conservation Plan and National
River Conservation Plan. The National Environment Policy 2006 seeks to
achieve balance and harmony between conservation of national resources and
development processes and also forms the basic frame work for the national
biodiversity action plan and similarly the national Ganaga River Basin Authority
2009 .

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a. International framework
 Legal Framework
- 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
- 1995 UN Convention Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly
Migratory Fish Stocks

 Institutional Framework
- 1995 FAO CCRF
- 1993 FAO Compliance Agreement to Promote Compliance with
International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels
on the High Seas
- 1993 FAO IPOAs

 Political Framework
-Agenda 21 of 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment
Development (UNCED)
- Johannesburg Summit 2002
-World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

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b.Regional Framework

 RFMO/As
- Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)
- Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC)
- Bay of Bengal Programme – Inter Governmental Organisation
(BOBPIGO)
- Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
(CCAMLR)
- INFOFISH

 Environmental Organizations - Bay of Bengal Large

Marine Ecosystem (BOBLME)
- South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP)
- Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean
(CORDIO)
- The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Projects
- Technical Cooperation Group (TCG) of Indian Ocean Marine Affairs
Commission (IOMAC)

 Political Organizations
- Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC)
- South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
- Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) East Asia Summit
(EAS) and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)
- Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic
Cooperation (BIMSTEC)
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 - Global Environment Facility (GEF)

C.National framework
 Mandate and authority
 Fisheries legislation: Legal and policy framework
 Institutional structure
- Role of Central Government
- Role of the State Governments
- The National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB)

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Conclusion & Recommendation:
The changes in any of the biological, chemical, geological or physical
components of the ecosystem will have impact on the resource population and
community. The responsibility for declining stocks and falling economic returns
and employment opportunities in fisheries must be shared among fishers,
fisheries management authorities, fishery scientists and those involved in
environment degradation. Resilient ecosystem that are able to with stand
occasional shocks are to be maintained. Account for evolutionary changes
caused by fishing, which tends to remove large and order fish. And also include
the actions of humans and their social and economic systems in all ecological
equations. In regard to inland fisheries, the strategy is to accelerate carp seed
production, establish new fish seed farms and augment fish production in
reservoir and tanks. Seed rearing infrastructure has to be developed for
enhancement and ranching. Cage and pen culture practices should be
encouraged as cluster approaches. The government should act as facilitator to
encourage, empower and facilitate the community to do stocking and manage
the stock. Appropriate tools are to be developed to collect resource and catch
data on inland fisheries and to create stronger databases to enable better
planning. Putting up of an integrated river management regions to plan and
implement water resource development projects. Appropriate environmental
flow models have to be developed to suit the Indian condition and the
provisions of environmental flow needs. Further adequate marketing chemical
and marketing infrastructure including facilities for value addition are to be
developed. The marine resources according to the FAO (2000) estimated that, in
1999, 47% of the 441 stocks for which some information on status was available
were fully exploited, 18% overexploited, 9% depleted and 1% recovering. In
marine sector to achieve higher production targets, is to establish new fishing

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harbors expand the mechanized fishing fleet for coastal fishing; introduce more
deep sea trawlers, diversify fishing techniques, assist traditional fisher man by
providing subsidies for fish craft, nylon twine and implements. In view of the
biodiversity conservation, the adoption of ecosystem based fisheries
management which incorporated responsible fishing practices, along with strict
regulation of fishing capacity at sustainable levels and establishment of Marine
Protected Areas (MPAs). Which would facilitate production and restoration of
biodiversity and enhance the resilience of the fish stocks and ecosystem services.

In conserving the inland aquatic habitats the major initiatives like

1) In situ conservation,

2) Ranching with endangered species like Hilsa ilisha, T. khudree, T. putitora,

L. Dussumieri, Ompokpabda, O. Malabarisus, Anabas testudineus and Chitala
chitala, Nandus nandus,

3) A new conservation approach “State Fish” adoption,

4) Fish sperm and embryos cryopreservation,

5) Tissue banking,

6) Live gene bank

7) Environmental impact assessments for river water development project and

8) River Ganga action plan has to be focused.

In the marine sector, the Bicatch Reduction Devices (BRD’s) and Turtle
Excluder Devices (TEDs) need to be adopted and enforced legally, under a
participatory management regime, in order to protect biodiversity and prevent
trawling can be promoted as an alternative to shrimp trawling in small
mechanized trawl sector in India to minimize environmental impacts.
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Ecofriendly practices are to be promoted in purse seining, gill netting, lining and
trap operations, to minimize the impact on non target species and environment.
Technologies and procedure for minimizing of GHG emissions from fishing fleet
need to be promoted. The plastic waste origination from articles abandoned also
should to taken care. Lastly the strict compliance regulation for safe disposal of
MARPOL of garbage, oil, oily mixtures and other residues from fishery vessel
operations, need to be promoted and implemented for protecting the health of
aquatic environment and consumers. The government of India has enacted
National Bio-diversity Action Plan in 2008 and created a National Biodiversity
Board.

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Acknowledgement:
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to National Children’s Science
Congress and my school management without them this thesis would not have
been possible. I extend my appreciation to my team member for his insightful
feedback and constructive criticism, which significantly improved the quality of
this thesis.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that any errors or shortcomings in this

thesis are entirely my responsibility.

Thank you all for your unwavering support and encouragement.

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Reference :
 https://www.alliedacademies.org/journal-fisheries-research/
 Alum_tokyo_ansi
 http://indusedu.org
 Tuticorin Research Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute
Tuticorin.

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