With Parliament amending the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005, representatives of the shrimp hatchery industry in the State are hopeful of buoyancy in production, which means expansion of facilities and more jobs.
G. Calraj, president, Tamil Nadu Region, All India Shrimp Hatcheries’ Association (AISHA), said that with this amendment, the industry was expecting a huge productivity increase from the current 8.75 lakh tonnes to nearly 20 lakh tonnes in the coming 4 or 5 years. In Tamil Nadu alone, 85 hatcheries produce nearly 35,000 tonnes of seed material for shrimp farms. “Our contribution to the Forex is expected to jump from ₹40,000 crore to ₹1 lakh crore. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha and Tamil Nadu contribute substantially to the growth of coastal aquaculture shrimp production and export,” he added.
Association president Ravi Kumar Yellanki said the industry was grateful to the Centre, Union Minister of Fisheries Parshottam Rupala, and Ministers of State for Fisheries L. Murugan and Sanjeev Kumar Balyan for standing by them and understanding the problems of the industry. “Tamil Nadu, which has the second longest coastline in the country, produces 20% of the country’s total seed needs. There is more scope for expansion. The Act had several ambiguities. The recent Amendment includes seaweed culture, fish cage culture, bi-value culture, marine ornamental fish culture and pearl oyster culture bringing more revenue-generating activities under its purview,” he said.
An industry expert said the Amendment allowed registrations granted under the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act to prevail and be treated as valid permission under CRZ Notification. This would enable small and marginal aquaculture farmers to avoid the possible need for obtaining CRZ clearances.
Some operational procedures, including powers of the Member Secretary of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority, had been fine-tuned through this amendment. It provides for effecting changes to the registration certificate in case of changes in ownership or expansion. The Amendment replaces a provision of imprisonment for a period of up to three years for carrying out coastal aquaculture activities without registration with penalty.
The Bill has provisions for empowering the Authority to regulate the activities of coastal aquaculture in a manner that they are more environment compliant. It provides for fixing or adopting standards for emission or discharge of effluents from coastal aquaculture units and prohibits coastal aquaculture in ecologically sensitive areas or the geo-morphological features.
