The real crisis in India’s fisheries

The piece questions official reassurance that India’s marine fish stocks are largely sustainable, arguing that the bigger problem is the continuing degradation of inshore fishing grounds and weak governance that fails to control mechanised trawling.

It notes that the government, citing figures from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), claims that most evaluated fish stocks are in good health and that over 90% of assessed stocks were found sustainable (based on evaluations in 2022). The author, while not challenging CMFRI’s technical conclusions directly, raises serious doubts about whether 'sustainability' is being measured in a way that accurately reflects the condition of marine ecosystems.

A key concern is methodology: CMFRI’s approach is said to rely primarily on landing data—what fishermen catch and land—rather than direct in-sea stock assessments. The article argues that landing figures cannot reliably indicate the abundance of living resources offshore, since beach catches do not necessarily translate into stock availability in the sea.