Fisheries management-based ecosystem has been called for in the Indian Ocean Rim countries to ensure sustainable fisheries.

A regional workshop on fisheries management has come up with this suggestion, saying that the management approach conserving the biodiversity and fishery resources is important for sustainable management of the industry in the region.

M. Srinath, former principal scientist of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), pointed out that such management practices are very crucial in the context of declining catches, profitability, socio-economic aspects and in combating the conflict of interests between various fisheries zones. 

He was speaking at a session on ‘Fish Stock Assessment-An Introduction’ at the ongoing workshop, organised by the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) and the Ministry of External Affairs.

Code of conduct

The basic principle of code of conduct for responsible fisheries is based on the maintenance of sustainable exploitation of resources.

Most of the earlier management practices were mainly based on the quantity and characteristics of the catches and not considered on environmental parameters, which were earlier considered to be static features.

But the recent changes in marine environment due to climate change, affected fishery resources drastically and this has led to incorporation of the ecosystem and its environmental characteristics in fisheries management practices, he said.

Stock assessment

For the management of these resources, he said that perfect database is needed for the stock assessment and to find out the maximum exploitable yield. The new mathematical models clearly predict the stock assessment of fishery resources by incorporating the changes in temperature, salinity, carbon production, etc.

According to him, scientific and statistical approaches are necessary to control overfishing of mature and juvenile fishery resources.

The dynamics of the exploitable fishery resources can be expressed only on the basis of the correctness of the data generated on the characteristics of fishery population. For this, data sharing between various fishery management agencies and institutes is necessary, he said. 

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