Marine Fishery Development and Climate Change

Marine fisheries have very important roles for food supply, food security and income generation in India. About one million people work directly in this sector, producing 3.1 million tonnes annually. The value of the marine fish landings have been estimated at Rs. 36,964 crores in 2010 and India has earned a foreign exchange of Rs. 10,000 crores through the export of 6 lakh tonnes of sea food products. The fisheries sector, presently contributes around one percent to the GDP and 4.72 percent to Agricultural GDP of our country (Sathiadhas et al., 2012). Being open access to a large extent, there is intense competition among the stakeholders with varied interests to share the limited resources in the coastal waters, which has resulted in overfishing and decline in stocks of a few species. Climate change renders severity to this situation and act as a dispensatory factor on fish populations. Further, it will also have strong impact on fisheries with far-reaching consequences for food and livelihood security of a sizeable section of the population