It is more than a decade since the
country declared in 1977 its maritime Exclusive
Economic Zone covering an area of 2.02
million sq. km, thus inheriting a great wealth
of living and non-living marine resources.
The potential of marine fishery resources of
the EEZ is of considerable magnitude and
roughly estimated at 4.5 million tonnes based
on different approaches by scientists. As
against this, during the last one and a half
decades there has not been any substantial
increase in the marine fish production of the
country which currently stands at about 1.6
million tonnes. The fact that a large gap
exists between the potential resources and the
actual yield is a matter of great concern
