Alternative employment generations for Fishermen – A way forward for reducing pressure on coastal Marine Fishing

Abstract

As per census - 2011, the total number of population in West Bengal is about 9.03 crores, now it is over 10 crores, out of which about 3,80,138 are marine sea going fishermen. They depend upon the mainly marine fishery resource in maintenance of their live and livelihood directly. All types and sizes of marine fishes are being caught by our fishermen throughout the year except 61 days fishing banned period in West Bengal from 15th April to 14th June. In West Bengal, total 45 Khuties and 18729 numbers of fishing boats are operated for fishing in sea and rivers. There is huge scarcity of availability of marine fishes at present. The marine fishery is diminishing year after year. For survival of marine fishery resources, we need to find out alternative employments except fishing. I humbly recommend our fishermen and entrepreneurs to make focus on edible marine molluscs collection, cage culture, pen culture and sea weeds culture practices. Our nation needs a plenty of protein enriched foods in future. Edible molluscs meats are good source of protein food which may be considered as human food if serve it before people in delicious forms. Cage culture, Pen culture and Sea Weeds Culture are also three another alternative ways of maintaining livelihood and effective to reduce pressure on coastal fishing in West Bengal.