Demersal fishery resources of India – an update- Winter School on Towards Ecosystem Based Management of Marine Fisheries – Building Mass Balance Trophic and Simulation Models

The continental shelf of Indian EEZ extending upto 200 m depth is a rich abode of a variety of demersal finfish resources contributing substantially to the total marine fish production in the country. The major demersal fin fish resources are the elasmobranchs, major perches, catfishes, threadfin breams, silverbellies, sciaenids, lizardfishes, pomfrets ,bulls eye, flatfishes, goatfish and white fish. A review of the literature shows that the demersal fisheries in India had been growing in a phased manner during the past 5 decades thanks to the development envisaged through different 5 year plans since the country`s attaining independence. On the flip side we have several issues adversely affecting the increase in production of the resources such as growth overfishing, recruitment overfishing,increased operation of units through multiday fishing, scraping the benthic biota etc.In this chapter, an attempt is made to examine the present status and future needs of the demersal fisheries sector of India