IThe marine fishing population in India is very large and old. Every day, both small-scale and mechanized trawl fishermen go out to earn a livelihood and provide food to the country.
The Government of India recently released the latest forecast (February 11, 2026) of the country’s marine fisheries. Its press release emphasizes that Indian marine fisheries are largely sustainable, which shows that the country has avoided the threat of international fishing, namely overfishing.
official claims
Based on data compiled by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), the government said most commercial fish stocks “are in good health”. Furthermore, it states that “91.1% of 135 fish stocks assessed in different regions were found to be sustainable during 2022.” If this assessment is accurate then it would be good news. However, there are good reasons to doubt whether this is actually correct.
For one, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is far more reserved than the Indian government in its assessment of the state of Indian marine fisheries. India’s country profile argues that “India’s marine fisheries production has reached a plateau as most of the key stocks are fully exploited. (…) Unregulated access to these fisheries has resulted in significant overcapacity, particularly of medium and small trawlers, who compete with mostly poor small-scale fishermen on diminishing fishery resources.” This message is not even half as encouraging as the one published by the Government of India.
I will not dispute CMFRI’s findings or its methodology for calculating ‘sustainability’. After all, most of its processes are shrouded in secrecy. What is known, however, is that compared to many other fishing countries, CMFRI relies primarily on landings data rather than stock assessments.
In other words, it calculates the availability of fish stocks in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) – which includes the maritime zone up to 200 nautical miles (371 km) across the country – based on the fish caught by fishermen. Even a layman can understand that finding a certain number of shells on the beach does not necessarily predict the amount of shells in the ocean.
Therefore, other nations use marine stock assessments to calculate how much aquatic life is available in certain waters. This is clearly a more reliable way to determine the health of fish stocks.
The Government of India cannot be blamed for not yet adopting this more expensive form of stock valuation. But it raises suspicions that the race to catch up with China, which is also infecting the fisheries sector, may also be driving hidden bias in the data.
coastal ecosystem collapse
The general consensus among fishermen I have spoken to over thirty years on the Tamil Nadu coast is that fish catches are steadily declining and many species that were previously available have disappeared. However, the government seems to be on track to increase fish production figures from one year to the next.
However, overfishing is not the central issue here. Of greater concern is the degradation, if not destruction, of the coastal benthic environment. In the past year, many fisheries scientists and policy makers have described coastal fishing environments as “destroyed”. What do they mean anyway?
India is surrounded by a relatively narrow continental shelf, where fishing is always most productive. This continental shelf is widest in Gujarat and a part of Maharashtra, but quite narrow in the rest of the subcontinent.
Generally speaking, one can assume that the territorial sea – a legal category that refers to waters located within 12 nautical miles (or 22 km) from the coast – largely overlaps with the continental shelf. These waters provide favorable ecological conditions for commercially valuable species like shrimp to feed, breed and grow.
But why do senior experts conclude that this is no longer the case?
This is a complex question with many answers. Thus, one can point to the construction of dams in major rivers, which prevents land-based nutrients from entering the ocean. One could also point to the ongoing destruction of mangroves, where fish breed, and pollution entering the ocean from various industrial, agricultural, and urbanization sources. Many scientists and fishermen also point to such changes to explain declines in fisheries. These factors obviously affect coastal fishing areas more than distant waters.
Mechanized trawling and its cost
One of the many factors contributing to this decline is the dramatic and largely uncontrolled expansion of mechanized trawling.
First of all it would be good to remind ourselves that semi-industrial trawling is not the Indian method of fishing. It was introduced from abroad around 1960 and has expanded to huge proportions since then.
According to the same government press release, India now has 64,414 mechanized fishing boats. These numbers are increasing day by day as there are practically no restrictions on new entries. Furthermore, existing vessels are constantly being enlarged and fitted with more powerful Chinese engines, making them capable of catching even more fish.
This large fleet of mechanized trawlers continuously dredges the coastal sea bed. In highly stranded areas, this results in the decline of all animal and plant life. This has also resulted in major conflicts with numerous populations of small-scale fishermen, who see their livelihoods under threat. The problem is that regulations to protect coastal fishing zones are almost non-existent. Yes, mechanized boat fishing is closed for two months every year, to allow revival of fish stocks. But the main tool to prevent unwanted trawling – a ban on mechanized boat fishermen operating within a geographical area of 5 nm – lacks robustness.
There are two main reasons for this. First, coastal states lack sufficient personnel or craft to patrol coastal waters. Second, governments have prevented fishermen from playing a supporting role in management. The result is that the ecology of the coastal fishing sector is continuously deteriorating, and all fishermen – small-scale and mechanized – are being pushed into offshore and deep-sea fishing areas.
Rethinking fisheries policy
The Indian government is optimistic about the potential of deep sea fishing and is encouraging fishermen to make the switch. But the question is whether that potential, which is also being exploited by other fishing countries, is as abundant as expected. FAO estimates that “only modest growth could be achieved by exploiting deep sea resources.”
More fundamentally, India’s current fisheries policy is wasting the vast potential of coastal waters. For one thing, it imposes additional expenses on fishermen for fuel and technology to actually travel to more distant waters. At the same time, it is closing its eyes to the dire need for proper management of coastal waters. In addition to addressing the problems of marine pollution, it also means curbing, if not reducing, mechanized boat fishing. This is more than a technical problem. Mechanized boat fishermen, because of their numbers and their political influence, now often stand in the way of proper management. For example, this has been observed in the case of Palk Bay, which is located between India and Sri Lanka. There, Indian fleets of mechanized boat fishermen now commit piracy in Sri Lankan waters, harming small-scale fishermen on the other side of the international border. The ownership of Katchatheevu Island makes no difference in this regard.
the way forward
Although the government’s assessment paints an encouraging picture of Indian fish stocks, a more fundamental concern remains. The larger issue is that fishermen, scientists and policy makers continue to decry the decline of coastal fishing grounds. A viable and truly sustainable fishery can only be realized if the governance of such productive coastal waters is improved. For this the government will have to correct its approach. This is in line with the FAO’s view that: “Strong efforts are needed at the federal and state levels to upgrade countries’ marine fisheries management capacity.” In this context, CMFRI would also like to make efforts to study what the condition of the benthic environment actually is. This will provide a basis for discussing the best way forward.
(Maarten Bavinck is Emeritus Professor of Coastal Resource Administration at the University of Amsterdam, email: jambavinck@uva.nl)
