The Mission

'To make the Potential Fishing zone Advisories as part of the value chain of fishing community'

The Need

India's future fisheries development plans are aimed at increasing fish production, improving the welfare of fishing community, promoting exports and providing food security.The annual fish catch in India is close to about 3 million tones of which pelagic species contribute nearly 52%, the rest being demersal species.

There are nearly 6 million fishermen in the country, of which 2.4 million are full-time, 1.45 million are part-time and the rest occasional. There are about 2,20,000 traditional craft, 40,000 traditional motorized craft and 52,000 mechanized boats operating in Indian waters using a wide variety of fishing gears for catching both pelagic and demersal fishes. The pelagic fishes (sardine, mackerel, tuna, etc) live principally in the upper layers of the ocean, near the surface, and the demersal fish (cod, flat fishes, cat fish, skates, rays, etc) live near the ocean bottom.

Identification of potential fishing zones including the availability type and quantity of fish has been one of the main pre-requisite for economical fishing activity.

The Approach

The fishing communities have developed over generations, a mental model for making their conclusions. The congregation of birds, color and smell of sea water, bubbles breaking on the sea surface, muddy and oily water with a calm sea and reflection in the night are some of the indicators used traditionally.

The scientific community, world over, make use of parameters such as sea surface temperature, chlorophyll, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, salinity, winds and currents to study the feeding and breeding habits of fish, and thus to evolve scientific indicators of potential fishing zones. Information on these parameters is derived from satellites and in-situ platforms.

The Heritage

Department of Space, Department of Ocean Development, and several institutions under the Ministry of Agriculture have been on an endeavour, for over a decade, jointly with the State Governments of the marine states and islands, to provide Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) Advisories generated using Sea Surface Temperature to the Indian Fishing Community.

Features such as oceanic fronts, Meandering Patterns, Eddies, Rings, Up welling areas, etc. that are proven to be prospective sites for fish accumulation are identified from Sea Surface Temperature generated using NOAA-AVHRR Satellite data. The availability of Chlorophyll from IRS-P4 has enriched these advisories in recent years. PFZ Advisories have become a significant input from the Science and Technology Sector to the Fishing Community to increase catch per unit effort.

The Present

This heritage was imbibed by the INCOIS. The PFZ Advisories are disseminated by INCOIS, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to around 200 nodes covering the entire coast line of India.

[Note: In view of the cloud cover during the monsoon season and more importantly this season corresponds to breeding season, the PFZ Advisories are not provided during June-September in order to maintain fish stock at sustainable level.]