Blue economy and Society of Andhra Coast of East Coast of India: Implications to Sustainable Resilience

 

Over 3 billion people relay on oceans across the world. The ocean resources serve as a food and employment, covering directly or indirectly over  300 million people. Oceans account for over 3 trillion dollars of global GDP, act as carbon sinks which absorb 30% of global carbon emissions, and are the largest primary source of proteins to billions of people. All along the coast, fishing villages are populated by people dependant directly and indirectly on fishing and other coastal livelihoods. India has about 500 fishing villages where one million fishermen are involved in fishing. While an additional one million fishermen are involved in fishing allied activities such as making and repairing fishing nets, curing the catch, peeling, and other processing issues. Fishing in India is still largely done by employing traditional fishing methods and of the nearly one million families that are involved in fishing, 91.3% are traditional fisher folk. Out of this, more than half a million   households (over 61%) are below the poverty line. The economic potential of the oceans is expected to double from India about one trillion in 2010 to US two trillions by 2030. Ocean resources (Blue foods) are viewed as lucrative areas for increased investment, including in fisheries, aquaculture, bio-prospecting, renewable energy, oil and gas, and other businesses. India is the second largest fish producing nation in the world and has a fleet of 250,000 fishing boats. India’s coastline extends to 7,500 kms. Nine Indian States have access to the coastline. The Government had established the ‘Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund‘ (FIDF) in 2018-19 with a fund size of INR  7 billion to provide concessional credit to State/UT Governments and the private sector to fill significant gaps in the fisheries infrastructure. The Government of India also launched the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), in May 2020, with an investment of  US$ 5 billion  to bring about a Blue Revolution through sustainable and responsible development of the fisheries sector. In the backdrop of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development, the present work  is considered to elucidate the potential of Indian coast in the nexus of Fish, water and society  and the ramifications of the anthropogenic activities.