The Marine Fishing Policy initiatives are required not only for making marine fisheries sustainable and responsible, but also globally competitive so that Indian producers stand to gain in international markets. This arrangement was appropriate until recently considering that only the resources close to the coasts of the maritime states were harvested. The global scenario with respect to marine fisheries is rapidly changing with major developments in harvesting and processing technology and consequent expansion of global markets for fish and fishery products. Relevance of the Marine Fisheries Sector extends beyond the livelihood security of the large coastal population to the food security of our countrymen and our foreign exchange generation. The potential of the sector for employment generation through ancillary activities and empowerment of coastal womenfolk is significant. However, the global marine fisheries, especially the coastal sector, has been under constant threat in the recent years basically due to depleting resources, land and sea based pollution and upheaval in the climatic conditions. The effort of the Union Government in this regard has resulted in this Comprehensive Marine Fishing Policy document which seeks a focused endeavour from the coastal States and the Central Departments with full appreciation of the international conventions in force for conservation, management and sustainable utilization of our invaluable marine wealth, without losing its relevance to the food and livelihood security of the coastal communities which totally depend on this. The policy objectives are: 1) to augment marine fish production of the country up to the sustainable level in a responsible manner so as to boost export of sea food from the country and also to increase per capita fish protein intake of the masses; 2) to ensure socio-economic security of the artisanal fishermen whose livelihood solely depends on this vocation; 3) to ensure sustainable development of marine fisheries with due concern for ecological integrity and bio–diversity. Section 3 establishes the harvesting of marine fish resources which is categorised into three levels as follows: (I) subsistence fishing (ii) small-scale fishing and (iii) industrial fishing. The policy advocates protection, consideration and encouragement of subsistence level fishermen and technology transfer to small scale sector and infrastructure support to industrial sector. The Policy is divided as follows: 1. Preamble; 2. Marine fisheries resources; 3. Harvesting of marine fish resources; 4. Post-harvest operations; 5. Resource management; 6. Fishermen welfare; 7. Environmental aspects; 8. Infrastructure development for marine fisheries; 9. Legislative support; 10. Policy for development of fisheries in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
India · 2004-11-01