Mariculture: an integral component of the Blue Economy

Production from the marine capture fisheries sector of India has remained quite stable for the last decades. On average we are capable of producing only 3.5 million metric tonnes every year and there is little scope for improvement. Thus marine capture fish production of India is plateauing off, indicating that sustainable levels have been reached in a sector which has 4 million people involved directly and indirectly with it for their livelihood. But demands for sea food are soaring in the country. The projected demand for seafood in India is expected to be 18mt by 2030. To meet this demand we would require the production of an additional 7 million metric tonnes in the country. There is a possibility of a quantum jump if newer avenues of fish production through sea farming are undertaken. With marine capture fisheries showing stabilization and the freshwater aquaculture sector reaching fairly high production levels, there is little scope for a major increase from these sectors. All attention is therefore towards the sea and the various options it offers for production through mariculture of about 5 million metric tonnes of seafood annually at an estimated value of Rs 1,00,000/- crores