91.1% of India's Marine Fish Stocks Sustainable, CMFRI Data Shows No Trawl Decline
ICAR-CMFRI's Marine Fish Stock Status of India (2022) report finds 91.1% of 135 assessed stocks in India's EEZ are sustainable, even as Parliament debates trawler overcapacity and inshore ecosystem stress.
The short answer
The ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has assessed 135 marine fish stocks across India's Exclusive Economic Zone and found 91.1% to be sustainable, according to its Marine Fish Stock Status of India (2022) report. Data spanning 2021–2025 shows no significant decline in trawl-based fish landings. The findings were disclosed in Parliament by Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Rajiv Ranjan Singh in response to a Lok Sabha question on inshore ecosystem degradation from unregulated mechanised trawling.
Parliament snapshot
Lok Sabha Question Puts Trawler Pressure in the Spotlight
The debate over India's inshore fisheries reached Parliament on 29 July 2026, when MP Abdussamad Samadani raised a question on the degradation of inshore benthic ecosystems caused by overcapacity and the unregulated growth of mechanised trawlers. Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh's response drew directly on ICAR-CMFRI's scientific assessments to counter concerns about a systemic collapse in fish landings.
The Minister stated that CMFRI's monitoring does not point to any discernible fall in trawl-based fish landings over the 2021–2025 period. The data underpinning this position comes from a statistically validated, FAO-recommended stratified multistage random sampling design — a methodology that gives the findings scientific credibility in policy circles.
Stock health
Nine in Ten Assessed Stocks Holding Steady, CMFRI Report Finds
The headline figure from CMFRI's Marine Fish Stock Status of India (2022) report is striking: 91.1% of the 135 marine fish stocks evaluated across different regions of India's Exclusive Economic Zone were classified as sustainable. The assessment covered the full breadth of India's 11,000-km coastline, with time-series landing and fishing-effort data collected from more than 1,300 landing centres.
CMFRI's long-term monitoring framework spans marine biodiversity, benthic ecosystem health, trophic interactions, and the specific impact of bottom trawling — giving it a multi-dimensional picture of how commercial fishing activity is reshaping underwater habitats. The institute's data architecture is built for early-warning detection, making it the principal scientific reference for national fisheries governance.
Regulatory landscape
State-Level MFRAs Govern Inshore Waters; Centre Sets the Guardrails
Because fisheries is constitutionally a State subject, the Centre's role in enforcing critical protections — including the five-nautical-mile prohibition zone that bars mechanised trawlers from operating near the coast to protect traditional fishers — is limited. Coastal States have each enacted Marine Fishing Regulation Acts (MFRAs) that govern fishing within territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles from the baseline.
These laws cover a range of protective measures:
- Zoning of fishing areas to separate traditional and mechanised vessels
- Mesh size and gear regulations to reduce bycatch
- Seasonal fishing bans to allow stock recovery
- Minimum legal size limits for captured fish
- Prohibition of destructive fishing practices
The patchwork of State-level enforcement, however, remains a persistent pressure point for traditional fishing communities who argue that mechanised trawlers routinely breach inshore exclusion zones.
Policy response
PMMSY Targets Deep-Sea Diversification and Inshore Relief
The Union Government is channelling interventions through the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) to simultaneously protect vulnerable marine habitats and the livelihoods of traditional fishers. Key measures highlighted by the Minister include:
- Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) fitted in trawl nets to reduce sea-turtle bycatch
- Sea ranching programmes to replenish depleted coastal fish populations
- Artificial reef deployment in coastal waters to restore benthic habitat and aggregate fish
Beyond habitat protection, PMMSY is actively promoting deep-sea fishing vessels, open-sea cage culture, mariculture, and seaweed farming — all designed to redirect fishing effort away from already-pressured inshore waters. If uptake scales, this diversification strategy could meaningfully ease the load on the coastal EEZ zones that sustain the bulk of India's small-scale fishers.
Why it matters
For India's fishing communities, traders, and policymakers, the CMFRI findings offer a broadly reassuring baseline — but they do not resolve the underlying tension between mechanised trawler expansion and the livelihoods of traditional fishers in inshore waters. Since fisheries is a State subject, the effectiveness of protective measures such as the five-nautical-mile prohibition zone will depend heavily on how individual coastal States enforce their Marine Fishing Regulation Acts. Stakeholders should watch whether PMMSY-funded interventions — artificial reefs, sea ranching, and deep-sea vessel promotion — measurably shift fishing pressure away from stressed inshore zones in coming assessment cycles.
Frequently asked
- What percentage of India's marine fish stocks are considered sustainable according to CMFRI?
- According to CMFRI's Marine Fish Stock Status of India (2022) report, 91.1% of the 135 marine fish stocks assessed across India's Exclusive Economic Zone were found to be sustainable.
- Has trawl-based fishing in India declined in recent years?
- CMFRI's assessments do not indicate any significant decline in trawl-based fish landings during the 2021–2025 period, according to Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh's statement in the Lok Sabha.
- How does CMFRI monitor India's marine fisheries?
- CMFRI uses a statistically validated, FAO-recommended stratified multistage random sampling design, collecting time-series data on fish landings and fishing effort from more than 1,300 landing centres across India's 11,000-km coastline.
- What measures under PMMSY aim to protect inshore marine ecosystems?
- PMMSY interventions include the installation of Turtle Excluder Devices in trawl nets, sea ranching programmes, and the deployment of artificial reefs. The scheme also promotes deep-sea fishing vessels, open-sea cage culture, mariculture, and seaweed farming to reduce pressure on inshore coastal waters.
Source
This report summarises and analyses coverage from The Hindu BusinessLine — Agri Business. The analysis and India context are IndianAgri's own.