Artificial Reefs and Seafarming Technologies

The nearshore waters of India along the 8060 km coastline support lucrative fisheries contributing about 90% of the total marine fish landings of the country. The brackishwater ecosystems also afford capture fisheries of some magnitude, besides traditional cultue fisheries in certain maritime States. We have an area of 9 million hectare of inshore waters of less than 18 m depth and 1.7 million hectare of brackishwaters in the adjoining coastal zone. Incresising interest is being evinced in the optimum utiUzation of these water resources by augmenting their productivity through artificial reefs and seafarming