Government of India

North West coast

· Survey and stock assessment of major important fishery resources of North West coast covering Gujarat and Maharashtra has been carried out.

· Biological studies of all the major resources have been carried out for fisheries management and conservation.

· Depth-wise biomass estimates for important resources were made.

· In northern latitudes recorded better catch rates for Cat fish, Sciaenids, Carangids, Ribbon fish, Mackerel and Elasmobranchs in different strata.

· Cat fish catch rates were found to be dominated between Lat. 18-22°N.

South West coast

· Systematic monitoring and survey of the deep-sea fishery resources of the Kerala coast revealed decrease in the abundance till mid of 2017. However, the restoration of these resources, especially those of shrimps (Aristeus sp. and Heterocarpus sp.) and lobsters is evident in recent period.

· Located perch resources all along Karnataka and Kerala coast between 70-150 m depth zone.

· Located deep-sea prawn and lobster grounds off Kerala and Gulf of Mannar.

· Discovered new lobster grounds in Quilon bank and off Ponnani during the period 1999-2004 and disseminated the exploration findings to the stakeholders & fishers.

· FSI undertaken intensive exploration of the deeper waters for deep sea resources already located in few pockets of the south-west coast and could identify potential fishing grounds vaster areas, all along the Kerala coast.

· The survey by FSI vessels in the Cochin deeper waters has been revealed rich resources of good quality finfishes like Priacanthids, Drift fishes, Indian ruff etc. The efforts of FSI in popularising these fishes, which were not used for human consumption earlier, resulted in adoption of Priacanthids and drift fishes as table fish in Kerala.

· Introduced Perch traps for exploitation of perch resource dwelling in the rocky fishing grounds of South-west coast of India, where bottom trawling cannot be undertaken due to uneven ground.

· Potential fishing ground identified for the deep sea shrimps and Indian ruff in 12°N of West coast. Protonibea diacanthus and Lutjanus malabaricus.

Central West coast

· Survey and stock assessment of major resources along the central west coast covering Goa and Karnataka has been carried out.

· Biological studies of all the major resources have been carried out for fisheries management and conservation.

· Depth-wise biomass estimates for important resources were made.

· Priacanthids and Carangids were found to be occurring in large quantities between Lat. 11-12°N.

South East coast

· Systematic survey of the fishery resources of Wadge bank and Gulf of Mannar started during 1990’s were continued, resulted in gathering of valuable information on the fish stocks.

· The exploratory survey carried out lead to findings of many fishing grounds in the lower east coast of Indian EEZ.

· Bottom set vertical long line survey conducted by FSI indicated the abundance of perch resources located off Mahabalipuram, Kovalam and Puducherry along Tamil Nadu coast between Lat 10ºN and Lat 13ºN in the depth range of 30m - 150m.

· Potentially rich Pomfret grounds were located off Narsapur and Machilipatnam of Andhra Pradesh.

Upper East coast

· Rich Shrimp grounds in the Sand heads off West Bengal and off Paradip, Odisha were located.

· Rich Indian mackerel grounds were located along the Odisha coast in 50-150 m depth.

· Surveyed in the shelf areas between 100-400 m indicated the presence of deep sea shrimps, bulls eye, Indian drift fishes and black ruffs.

· Off Paradip (Odisha) Recorded rich grounds for Red Snapper.

· Good fishing grounds for Upenoids, Silverbellies etc., were located off Odisha coast in 30-100m depth zone.

· Mid water / pelagic trawling undertaken along the upper east coast of India showed good results with commercially important fishes such as Seerfishes, Barracudas, Ribbonfishes, Mackerels, Sardines, Anchovies etc., in the depth range of 30- 100 m.

· From Andhra Pradesh to Sand heads (West Bengal) was properly surveyed in terms of demersal and pelagic fishery resources in the continental shelf and slope waters and the result so obtained were disseminated to the local fishers for the judicious exploitation of the fishery resources

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

· Demersal resources survey of Andaman waters was conducted and located the availability of spear lobster (Linuparus somniosus) for the first time in Indian waters.

· FSI estimated the marine fishery potential of Andaman and Nicobar waters.

· Rich ground for Spear Lobster was located in Andaman waters and the resources were exploited by the private vessels based on the information given by FSI.

· Rich ground for perch resources in and around A&N group of Islands were identified and the same was disseminated to the fishing community through media and in-house publications and the resources are being exploited by the local fisher-folk.

· Modified Deep Long Line (MDLL) gear for Big eye tuna resources was established in the Union Territory of A & N Islands.

· Deep sea shrimps fishing grounds identified by FSI forms one of the major exporting fishery resources from the A&N Islands.

· Exploration of oceanic tuna and allied resources in the International waters between EEZ(s) along east coast and around Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

· Feasibility of hand line fishing for demersal resources in the shelf area of A&N Islands was established by FSI.

· Drift long line gear using light sticks for Sword fish resources were established in A&N Islands.

· Preliminary survey of Skipjack and Yellow-fin tuna by Pole & Line fishing in A&N waters.

Lakshadweep Islands

· Introduced resource-specific diversified techniques like trap fishing, long lining etc.

· Bottom set vertical longline gear for perch resources were established by FSI.

· Introduced and established feasibility of multifilament and monofilament tuna longline fishing by locating productive tuna grounds in Oceanic Sector of the Indian EEZ.

· Bottom set vertical longline gear for perch resources were established by FSI.

· FSI developed Lobster traps and trained the fishers onboard to use of these traps.

· Survey and assessment of marine fishery potential of Indian EEZ are being continued to understand the fluctuation in the fishery, abundance and availability in the EEZ.

· Identified potential fishing grounds for finfish, crustacean and cephalopod resources in different regions of both the coast of Indian EEZ.

· Biological studies conducted by the FSI scientists, resulted in, collection of important information on diet, maturity, growth etc., of different species, which are essential for management and conservation of these resources in the Indian EEZ.

· FSI has prepared species inventory of demersal, pelagic, meso-pelagic and oceanic fishery resources in the Indian EEZ.

· Estimated the abundance index of various pelagic, demersal and large pelagic resources in the Indian EEZ.

· FSI identified new species and explored new fishing grounds for the species viz., Lutjanus russelli, Plotosus anguillaris, Sigamus oramin, Pterois russelli, Pterigotrigla hemisticta, Parascolopsis aspinosa, Parascolopsis boesemani and Awaous grammepomus in the Indian EEZ.

· Provided fishery resources data for revalidating the marine fisheries potential in the Indian EEZ.

· The FSI HQs, at Mumbai and the Base offices at various centers maintaining museums of the marine fishes of the Indian EEZ collected during the surveys for the benefit of the end users.

· The computerization of the data collected by the exploratory survey vessels of the FSI was commenced in the eighties. At present FSI data bank holds about 82,000 records and about 100 records are added annually.

· Location of potential resources of tunas and bill fishes, sharks were identified and published as Atlas for the benefit of fishermen and stakeholders.

· FSI identified spatio-temporal distribution pattern of Marine fishery resources.