Key Details
Released by the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE), the National Report on Deep-Sea and Distant-Water Fishery Resources of the Indian EEZ consolidates nearly four decades of oceanographic research and three decades of systematic surveys.
Geographical coverage: India’s 2.37 million sq. km Exclusive Economic Zone, spanning the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Lakshadweep, Andaman Sea and adjoining waters.
Research base: More than 400 scientific cruises conducted since the early 1990s, principally through the research vessel Sagar Sampada.
Resources assessed: Lanternfishes, deep-sea shrimps, cephalopods, perches, flatfishes, eels, tunas, billfishes, sharks, oceanic squids and Antarctic krill.
Ecological focus: Mapping of habitats and nursery areas alongside potentially underused fishery stocks.
Technology: Fisheries acoustics, environmental DNA, satellites, autonomous observing platforms, artificial intelligence and ecosystem modelling.
The Report Looks Beyond Coastal Fisheries
Most Indian fishing activity is concentrated relatively close to the coast. The new assessment examines resources farther offshore and at greater depths, including the mesopelagic or “twilight” zone between 200 and 1,000 metres.
This zone contains lanternfishes, shrimps and cephalopods that migrate towards the surface at night. Their movement also transfers carbon into deeper waters through the ocean’s biological carbon pump, giving these species an ecological role beyond their possible commercial value.
The report identifies currently underused deep-sea stocks such as shrimps, perches, scombroids, flatfishes and eels. It also brings together information on high-value distant-water species, including tunas, billfishes and oceanic squids.
The release does not provide resource-volume estimates, recommended catch levels or commercial-development timelines. The immediate update is therefore the release of a national scientific assessment, not approval for expanded fishing.
Resource Mapping Includes Areas Requiring Protection
The report documents ecologically important habitats and nursery grounds, including:
Kollam Bank and Angria Bank;
the deep-sea slope off Mangalore;
the terrace off Thiruvananthapuram; and
waters around Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
By mapping commercially relevant species and sensitive ecosystems together, the assessment can support marine spatial planning—deciding where fishing or other economic activity may be suitable and where ecological restrictions may be necessary.
What Is India’s Exclusive Economic Zone?
An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends up to 200 nautical miles from a country’s coastline, subject to boundaries with neighbouring countries. Within it, the coastal state has sovereign rights to explore, conserve and manage natural resources in the water, seabed and subsoil.
India’s EEZ is substantially larger than its land-based coastal districts, but much of its deeper marine environment remains difficult and expensive to survey.
New Technologies Expand Ocean Observation
Historical field observations are being combined with newer methods:
environmental DNA can help detect species from genetic material left in seawater;
acoustic systems estimate the distribution and density of marine organisms;
satellites and autonomous platforms extend observation across larger areas; and
AI and ecosystem models can help analyse relationships among species, ocean conditions and fishing pressure.
These tools can improve resource assessment, but decisions on commercial fishing will still require continuing surveys and monitoring of how stocks and ecosystems change over time.
Policy Relevance
For India, the report creates an evidence base for considering deep-sea fisheries without treating the ocean as an unqualified new production frontier.
Fishery development: Better information on distant-water and deep-sea stocks could inform vessel capabilities, fishing technology, landing infrastructure and value chains.
Conservation safeguards: Habitats, nursery areas and species with important ecological functions need to be incorporated into licensing and spatial planning before fishing activity expands.
Climate implications: Mesopelagic species contribute to oceanic carbon transfer. Their exploitation cannot be assessed solely through potential catch or market value.
Monitoring capacity: Resource development would require continued stock assessments, vessel tracking and enforceable catch or area-based controls—not only an initial national inventory.
Follow the Full Update Here: National Report on Deep-Sea and Distant-Water Fishery Resources of the Indian EEZ