National strategy for exploitation and utilization of the potential marine fishery resources of India-a projection

It is more than a decade since the country declared in 1977 its maritime Exclusive Economic Zone covering an area of 2.02 million sq. km, thus inheriting a great wealth of living and non-living marine resources. The potential of marine fishery resources of the EEZ is of considerable magnitude and roughly estimated at 4.5 million tonnes based on different approaches by scientists. As against this, during the last one and a half decades there has not been any substantial increase in the marine fish production of the country which currently stands at about 1.6 million tonnes. The fact that a large gap exists between the potential resources and the actual yield is a matter of great concern