Are cyclical lows in fish landings, as has been the case in 2012, symptoms of chickens coming home to roost for Indian marine fisheries, which is worth at least Rs. 1.20 lakh crore annually? Or has the marine fisheries resources been well-managed, so that fish landings have grown over the last five decades from 0.5 million tonnes in 1950 to more than 3.5 million tonnes in 2010? The debate surfaces as the world celebrates Environment Day today.
Seafood export industry, worth about Rs. 19,000 crore during 2012-13, meets in Chennai next week to consider the question of sustainable fishing in the face of what some players have called a possible collapse in wild catch triggered by practices like bottom trawling and unchecked growth in fishing fleet.
Their concerns have been set off by a possible European Union move to make sustainability certification compulsory over the next couple of years. EU countries account for nearly 18 per cent of the quantity of seafood exports from India and for more than 20 per cent of its value. The region continues to be a strong market despite the economic crisis.
As a result, some members of the Seafood Exporters’ Association of India have decided to address issues in sustainability on an informal basis initially because practices like bottom trawling, which is considered quite destructive, is politically sensitive.
Nobody wants to raise the issue because it involves so many people, said an industry player.
The sensitivity of the issue means that all stakeholders will have to be involved in discussion. Fishermen, government regulators, exporters and NGOs will have to sit together to evolve a consensus, the industry member said as he claimed that some of the fish species had virtually disappeared from the Kerala coast and that the State’s fame as the sardine coast of India was on the decline.
The exporters’ concerns, geared towards boosting future business, is complemented by anxiety expressed by conservationists and advocates of sustainable fishing, who claim that marine fisheries in Kerala has been marked by juvenile catch and discarding of by-catch.
One of the scientists working on sustainability told The Hindu that around 50 tonnes of juvenile fish, especially oil sardines, are shipped to fish meal factories in Mangalore from each of the nine major fishing harbours in the State on a daily basis. Juveniles are preferred because there is little wastage and can be crushed easily by the machines making fish meals. It means they are killed even before they can breed at least once in their lifetime.
This is an enormous waste of resources, he said. Practices like ‘Kolachal fishing’ prevalent in the sea off northern Kerala destroy cuttle fish brooders, the scientist said. The practice involves creating artificial shelters, even using plastic bottles and twines in which cuttle fish come to lay eggs. The brooder fish is caught, leading to substantial loss in future resources, he said.
Marine fisheries scientists like G. Syda Rao, director of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, have contested the claims of destruction of resources made by exporters but concede that juvenile catch and discarding untargeted species are issues that need to be addressed.
One of the works CMFRI has taken up is to map the juveniles in the seas to warn fishermen so that these schools, in specified areas, can be avoided.
Dr. Rao said on Tuesday that Indian marine fish landings had grown between 1950 and 2010 from a little more than 0.5 million tonnes to more than 3.5 million tonnes. “It is a question of managing our resources,” he said pointing out that the rest of the world’s experience was actually being imposed on India.
The world has seen a fall in marine fish catch. He is confident that India will be able to reach a marine fish production of 10 million tonnes by 2050 — six million tonnes coming from wild catch and four million from open sea culture.
He claimed that the European countries had seen their catch declining sharply over the years and some of the industry players were trying to paint the same picture for India. However, India’s efforts are geared towards enhancing fish availability because sustainability depends on how you manage your resources.
Dr. Rao said exporters were always talking of their business and how to increase profitability. The larger picture involves the ordinary fishermen and women, who make a living from the seas. They don’t need the exporters, but the exporters need them.
He stressed that domestic market for marine fish was rapidly growing and was estimated to be worth Rs. one lakh crore annually. Pearl spots sell for Rs. 350 a kg; seer fish costs Rs. 600 a kg, he said.
He also questioned the concept of sustainability certification. According to him, it is a means to boost export business. “Does sustainability certification for one species take into consideration the other species?,” he asked.
