Estimates of fishery potentials of the EEZ of India

Abstract

An attempt has been made to estimate the fishery potentials of the EEZ of India on the basis of data on primary and secondary production. The total column primary production and zooplankton production have been calculated to be 265·9 and 9 million tonnes of carbon per year, respectively. From these values the fishery potential has been estimated as 2·5 million tonnes per year. To this, if we add the estimated demersal fish catch, being 1·2 million tonnes per year, the total potential yield comes to 3·7 million tonnes per year. Since the present average total catch is about 1·6 million tonnes in a year, the fish catch could be doubled.