Inland fisheries a major contributor to overall fish production in country: Guv

Inaugurating an International Conference on “Asian Pacific Aqua Culture 2019” organised by the Tamil Nadu Dr J Jayalalithaa Fisheries University and World Aqua Culture Society-- Asian Pacific Aqua Culture, here, he said the historical scenario of fisheries in India reveals a paradigm shift from marine dominated fisheries to a situation today wherein inland fisheries has emerged as a major contributor to the overall fish production in the country.

Pointing out that the annual fisheries and aquaculture production in India was about 12 million metric tonnes, he said the country now enjoys the second position in the world after China with regard to fisheries and aquaculture production.

‘’Inland fisheries presently has a share of 66.81 per cent in the total fish production of the country. Consequently, freshwater aquaculture, which had a share of only 34 percent in inland fisheries in mid-1980s, has gone up to about 80 per cent in recent years’’, he added.

Purohit said prawn farming has also grown considerably in the last few decades and the book on shrimp farming, released on Wednesday, deals with the systems and advanced management practices with regard to the shrimp industry and was sure to serve as a guiding light for entrepreneurs and exporters.

He said the theme of conference “Aquaculture for Health, Wealth and

Happiness” has been aptly named in line with the current trends.

Farming of fish was the most common form of aquaculture. It involves raising fish commercially usually for food.

The Governor said commercial shrimp farming began in the 1970s and production grew steeply thereafter. About 75 per cent of farmed shrimp was produced in Asia.

Just two species of shrimp, the Pacific white shrimp and the giant tiger prawn, account for about 80 per cent of all farmed shrimp.

In the Mediterranean, young bluefin tuna were netted at sea and towed slowly towards the shore. They were then interned in offshore pens (sometimes made from floating HDPE pipe) where they were further grown for the market, Purohit said. In 2009, researchers in Australia managed for the first time to coax southern bluefin tuna to breed in landlocked tanks. Southern bluefin tuna were also caught in the wild and fattened in grow-out sea cages in southern Spencer Gulf, South Australia, he said.