Advances in Fishery, Aquaculture and Hydrobiology

Introduction to fishery sciences

David Stephen^* Department of Anthropology, Cincinnati University, Waldo Hall Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
^*Correspondence: David Stephen, Department of Anthropology, Cincinnati University, Waldo Hall Cincinnati, Ohio, USA,

Description

Fisheries sector is one of the important food product sector in the state contributing to the livelihood as well as food security of a large section of the economically under privileged population. In recent times, it has assumed higher significance and its endowment towards the State and the National economy in terms of livelihood and nutritive security, pastoral employment creation and foreign exchange earnings have been enormous. Fisheries involve marine, freshwater and brackish water subsectors. The fisheries zone contributed crore to the gross domestic product during 2011-2012 in the State, which is 0.80 percent of the total gross domestic product. During 2011 12, the export of marine products reached tonnes evaluated at crore.

Tamil Nadu with its 1076 km of coast 1.90 lakhsq.km of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and a continental shelf of aroundsq.km is one of the leading producers of both marine and inland fish products. At present mechanised boats and conventional crafts are involved in the marine fishing. The marine fish potentiality in Tamil Nadu is valued at 7.00 lakh Metric Tonnes (L.MT.). There are 591 marine fishing townlets and 363 marine fish wharf centres in the State, with a population of 9.15 lakh fishers of which 2.60 lakh are laboriously enthralled in fishing. There are three significant fishing harbours and three intermediate fishing harbours.

Apart from these harbours, other infrastructure establishments like docks, fish jetty centers, cold storehouse, ice factories and link roads have also been created in the State. The inland fisheries sector has about 3.73 lakh hectars of water spread area included with reservoirs, good irrigation, long seasonal tanks, short seasonal tanks and ponds. The inland fisher population is about 2.23 lakh about hectares are being employed for fresh water monoculture.

There are five fish seed product centres with a yearly product capability of 33 fish seed rearing centres with capacity to produce 85 million fingerlings annually. The implicit inland fish product is 4.50 lakh metric tonnes. In Tamil Nadu, the total brackish water resource is ha. of which 6019.21 ha. Are truly under aquaculture product. Five fresh water fish farmers development departments are performing in the State covering all 12 offshore districts except Chennai district. 12 Fish Farmers Development Agencies (FFDA) have been established in Tamil Nadu to be familiar about fish culture activities and create employment openings in village areas.

Problems and constraints the important issues in the fisheries and aquaculture related sector in Tamil Nadu are 1).Optimization of fish yield 2). Stock improvement in inland and marine waters, 3).Reduction in post harvest losses to advance deep ocean fishing,4).Improvement of adequate support infrastructure for ultramodern fishing 5). Acceptable processing and pack houses and 6). Monitoring and e-governance practices etc., it’s now extensively allowed that fisheries have a major part in the supply of nutritional protein for the growing population and in accelerating the overall economy of the State. To achieve this, it's essential that both increase in product and resource sustainability.

Fish processing structure sea food processing for export Tamil Nadu is important seafood processing and exporting State in the country. There are 28 ultramodern seafood processing factories with captive pre-processing, ice factories and frozen storehouse installations approved for export to European Union (EU). Another nine factories have been approved for export to non-European union countries. Apart from the above, there are seven chilled fish exporting units, 11 live exporting units, one major independent cold storage, two approved ice plants and one approved pre-processing unit in the State. The sea food exported from Tamil Nadu is mainly to USA, European Union, Japan, South East Asia, Middle East and China.