Resources of Tunas and Related Species and Their Fisheries in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

With the new ocean regime coming into being, many \t 
\nof the countries including India have declared an EEZ \t 
\n(Exclusive Economic Zone) which extends national \t 
\njurisdiction to 200 miles from the coast. This has \t 
\ncreated a greater awareness of our responsibility to\t 
\nwards the judicious exploitation of the living and non\t 
\nliving resources coming under the extended jurisdiction. \t 
\nThe problems of survey, assessment, utilization and \t 
\nmanagement of the resources thus assumes priority. \t 
\nAt the same time, the management of living resources, \t 
\nparticularly the fishery resources receive both national \t 
\nand international importance. This is all the more so, \t 
\nas the exploitation of living resources has hitherto been \t 
\nconfined to a narrow belt of the neritic waters. In the \t 
\nmarine fisheries sector, with a decade of stagnation in \t 
\nworld fish production, the declaration of the EEZ has \t 
\ngiven high hopes to some nations of substantially aug\t 
\nmenting their fish production. To countries which had \t 
\nwell established distant waterfishing operations covering \t 
\nthe EEZ of other countries, the continuation of such \t 
\noperations poses serious problems. The new ocean \t 
\nregime undoubtedly offers some of the developing coun\t 
\ntries an opportunity for developing and expanding their \t 
\ncapabilities of harvesting fish from their EEZ through \t 
\ntheir own effort or through collaborative ventures.