A NOVEL ANALYTICAL PROCEDURE FOR SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT FOR MARINE FISHERIES: A CASE STUDY OF RATNAGIRI DISTRICT, MAHARASHTRA STATE, INDIA

Sustainability of fish resources is a major concern across the globe. There are varying factors that affect the sustainability of fish resources, the major contributors being anthropogenic activities that affect both climate change and its impact on the ocean biota results in declining fish resources. It is therefore imperative to develop sustainability measures of capture fisheries that reflects the impact of current fishery practices. The need to address this lacuna led to the development of sustainability measures in relation to fishing pressures. Therefore, this study aims to propose a procedure essential to develop a measurement based on relative prominence of fish varieties based on observed landings, as an indicator for sustainable operational practices vis-a-vis fishing pressure. Fish landing data was obtained from the Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Maharashtra, for three decades i.e from 1982-83 to 2011-12, collected from the four fish landing centres viz. Burondi, Dabhol, Mirkarwada and Ratnagiri (Jaitapur/Nate) in Ratnagiri District. Using ‘Pareto’s 80-20 Rule’ the prominent fishes in the landings were categorized into two groups viz. most prominent and trivial. The analysis reveals that nine to eleven fishes in the first decade of study were contributing to 80% of the total landings, however in the third decade it was observed that six to nine fish varieties were contributing to 80% of the landings, clearly indicating the fishing pressures. The findings on landings of non-penaeid prawns showed a declining trend. Non-penaeid prawns being most prominent in the first decade became trivial during the third decade. Similar trends were also seen in case of some other fishes such as, other clupeids, catfish, tunnis and seer fish. In this study Pareto’s Rule was used as a device, an indicator to measure trends in fishing pressure and fish diversity affecting sustainable marine landings in the district. Furthermore, forecast for the developed measurement were obtained for next two decades using the Drift Forecast Method as well as the Regression Analysis. Moreover, the forecast and predicted values were compared with actual marine fish landing data which was observed during 2012-13 to 2018-19. The derived measurements provide insightful observations and helps in understanding the level of sustainability across various landing centers. Furthermore, the derived measurements indicate Mirkarwada landing center to be fully exploited followed by Dabhol, whereas Burondi and Ratnagiri (Jaitapur/Nate) show high future potential in terms of fish catch landings.