Fishing as a Method for Natural Resource Management

The oldest form of human survival is undoubtedly fishing. In a hunter-subsistence gatherer's profession, fishing does not fall under a separate category. It qualifies as a sort of hunting because various kinds of traps are frequently used to catch fish and other aquatic creatures that are readily available in nature. To assure a consistent supply of food, however, fishing methods have developed over time, and many fish species and their ecosystems have been under human control. Water and food for man both come from aquatic habitats. The majority of people on earth eat a lot of fish and other aquatic critters like shrimp, clams, octopus, and other similar creatures. They offer proteins, a crucial dietary element required for the growth and development of the human body.

Fish made up over 17% of the world's population's consumption of animal protein in 2013, according to the The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Up to 60% of an adult's daily protein needs can be satisfied by 150g of fish, which also contains good fats like Omega 3.

People in poor nations, especially those who live along the shore, depend on fish far more than people in affluent nations do for their primary source of sustenance. Due to its high per-person consumption and substantial population, Asia is the continent with the highest seafood consumption. When fishing communities have consistent access to resources, malnutrition issues, which are a problem in many communities in underdeveloped nations, are dramatically reduced.

Simply classifying the ecological type of the habitat in which they are conducted allows for the division of fisheries. For both subsistence and commercial fishing, around 11 million Indians rely on rivers, marshes, floodplains, estuaries, ponds, and tanks. Thus, the main categories are: marine fishing, which involves fishing in salt water.

Different communities have different fishing equipment and methods. In certain places, they have been converted into captive fisheries or partially marketed. Traditional fishing is frequently referred to as "artisanal fishing." India's marine fish catch is well regulated and makes up a sizeable portion of our exports. Freshwater fisheries have a little overall economic contribution, but they are an essential part of the livelihood and nutritional security of India's rural poor.

In actuality, different nations have different definitions. The tools used could be fish hooks and traps, and the size of the boat could range from a little one-person boat to a more than 20-meter-long trawler propelled by engines in a developed nation. Whether they are for local use or export, artisanal fisheries can be either subsistence or commercial in nature. They are also known as small-scale fisheries.

There are instances when it's difficult to distinguish between artisanal and industrial fishing. It is simpler to observe these distinctions when comparing the size of the boats used with the amount of money invested per guy on board. Due to the low level of technology investment, even a huge wooden canoe that is manually propelled and uses handlines would be considered artisanal. However, a much smaller boat that is extremely light and outfitted with cutting-edge GPS, downriggers, and sonar can be regarded as industrial machinery.

At and close to the point where the river meets the sea, a distinctive aquatic ecosystem is generated that combines elements of both freshwater and marine environments. These are what are known as estuaries, which are described as "a semi-enclosed coastal body of water, which has a free connection with the open sea and within which the seawater is measurably diluted with the freshwater of land drainage." The three most significant brackish water lakes in the nation are Vembanad in Kerala, Pulicat in Tamil Nadu, and Chilka in Odisha.

The estuary habitat contains a variety of unique characteristics. Normal growth of mangrove forests occurs there. Many fish and animals are supported by these very productive environments, some of which are unique to estuaries and cannot be found anywhere else. In estuaries, many marine species reproduce. One well-known example of an estuary wetland is the Sundarbans. Both India's east and west coasts include similar wetlands. Estuarine fishing is very rewarding because they have a lot of fish. Along estuaries, many fishing villages have established themselves or frequent the areas for fishing. They fish in the calm, shallow waters of estuaries using small boats, traps, and nets. When the tide is low and the muddy coastlines are visible, some animals, like mussels, can be directly harvested.

Building freshwater and marine ponds allowed people to manage the amount of fish produced. In many places, a bund is constructed to create a small reservoir that makes it easier to catch different species of wild fish. Fish farming is formally known as pisciculture. It entails growing fish for food on a large scale in tanks or enclosures. It is aquaculture's primary method. The fish may be a naturally occurring species or they may be imported from fish hatcheries as a desirable species. In India, aquaculture has a lengthy history. Kautilya's Arthashastra (321–300 BCE) and King Someswara's Manasoltara both make mention of fish culture (1127 CE.).

In eastern India, it has been customary to cultivate fish in small ponds for hundreds of years. Later, substantial developments in the regulated breeding of fish in tanks or impoundments that mimicked riverine environments were made in West Bengal in the early nineteenth century. Such tanks include Pukurs, which can be found in West Bengal. Numerous pukurs, which may be owned privately or collectively, may exist in each hamlet. Pukurs are used for a variety of things, although often only the owners of the pukurs have access to and the right to fish from them. Although someone from the fishermen's caste may perform the actual fishing, the owner and fisherman will agree to divide the proceeds from the catch. The pukurs are regularly repaired, dredged of silt, cleaned, etc.

Saline water aquaculture was a long-standing technique in the pokkali salt-resistant deepwater rice fields around the Kerala coast and in bheries, man-made impoundments in coastal wetlands of West Bengal. Tidal water is gathered on the intertidal mudflats by raising bunds in the traditional aquaculture technique. During spring tides, tidal water with a variety of fish and shrimp seed is permitted to enter through sluice-gates. During spring tides, huge fish and shrimp are routinely caught using traps set up close to the sluice gates. Two distinct traditional shrimp cultures are carried out in Kerala's low-lying backwaters. Shrimp are cultured year-round in perennial fields using the trap-and-culture method. During the monsoon season, rice of the regional type, "Pokkali," is grown in seasonal fields. Shrimp culture is carried out by capturing tidal waters after it has been harvested. In the past three decades, aquaculture in India has advanced from a historically backyard hobby to a sustainable commercial farming technique with significant species and system variety. The annual growth rate for fishing has consistently been between 6 and 7 percent. However, the introduction of foreign fish like Telapia has resulted in the extinction of native fish species. Along the coastal areas, mussel and crab culture is also encouraged.

Along with regulating and allocating resource use, guaranteeing fair access to resources, and offering some sort of social insurance, community organisations like caste panchayats or those organised along caste, familial, or religious lines played an important role in resolving conflicts. In order to control human interaction with resources and prevent disputes, most societies have developed their own management systems over time. This is especially true when there are many people who depend on a small number of resources. Owners of fish nets and labourers' disagreements were resolved by the panchayats. Additionally, they possessed the authority to restrict fishing on specific days. They defended the community's rights to its fishing grounds, struck a balance between fishing activity and resource availability, and created distribution guidelines. The promotion of commercial fishing led to the weakening of many of these institutions. Many people who were not from fishing communities entered as a result of the state subsidies, and as a result, they did not abide by the norms of traditional institutions. Today, fishing communities are divided into a number of sectors, including associations for owners of mechanised equipment, trade unions, cooperatives (both public and private), associations based on the type of gear used, self-help organisations, federations, etc.

Fisheries in dam reservoirs were also encouraged. Government assistance was provided in regulating the stocking and introduction of commercial fish into dams. However, a tendering process is used to give fishing rights. As a result, several fishing communities that previously had access to fish have been forced to relocate. A group called Shashwat assisted traditional fishermen in Western Maharashtra in reclaiming their privilege to fish in a dam from contractors who were not local. Since the government has asserted ownership over many ponds, rivers, and lakes, inland fishermen have lost control over managing the fish resources there. Huge-scale habitat changes, such as the building of large dams, the connecting of rivers, and the altering of river courses, pose a threat to local fishers and are out of the reach of small fisherman. Silent suffering is required of them.

In most states, river water is subject to private leases and "ownership." This was accomplished through agreements and leases over ponds or rivers that the government sells at public auction. Traditional fishermen are employed by private fisheries as wage labourers who are debt-bound to them.

In the past, river segments were held by Panidars (or waterlords), who served as the opposite of zamindars or landlords, through "Jalkar leases," in the feudal fishing systems that prevailed in Bengal, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. (2014) Kelkar

Since the Mughal era, river resources have largely been owned privately. The British government strengthened it (via the Permanent Settlement and other land tenancy regulations in the 18th Century), which led to major labourer exploitation as they had to put up with Panidar persecution, low wages, and harassment. The concept of riparian rights was primarily used to establish private ownership of water (of channel stretches and river bank areas). Landlords who owned property along a river's banks would assert their rights to the river's fisheries and ferry services and enforce them. However, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, battles over water rights frequently became violent in the Gangetic floodplains of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Due to the easy access to cash and the increased productivity of fisheries due to artificial inputs and protection, later state governments in independent India primarily favoured private management. However, it is evident that these control mechanisms have resulted in significant unrest and social consequences for the victimised fishworkers (Kelkar 2014).

The Panidari system of debt-bond labour persisted in Bihar until 1991. Then, under the aegis of Ganga Mukti Andolan, traditional fishermen banded together to compel the Bihar state government to remove the feudal structures. Violent disputes remained despite Panidari being abolished and waterways being declared "open for everybody to fish." Criminal elements continue to demand money from fishermen, and caste conflicts over fishing areas that were once under Panidari rule still exist. Determining the tenurial security for traditional fishermen in changing riverscapes is necessary. It is obvious that an ever-increasing demand for a resource that is fast depleting, like fish, cannot be met by either private management or an entirely open-access system. As practical alternatives, it is necessary to take into account community-wide, democratic, compromise-based structures. Fisheries common-pool management under community control is a possibly workable option.

The fishing population is facing significant challenges to their way of life due to the degradation of all aquatic ecosystems. The quality and quantity of the catch have declined as a result of pollution of freshwater and marine waterbodies. Even though pond aquaculture appears to be contributing to an increase in inland fisheries in India, the older pond and riverine fisheries have nearly collapsed over the past 40 years and now only make up less than 10% of the country's inland fisheries production. The poor management of freshwater resources is the primary cause of the decline in river fisheries. There is a definite correlation with the 1970s and 1980s, which were a time of maximum water development. Several dams, barrages, and hydropower projects were built around the nation, and regulations requiring minimum flows, etc., have been broken.

People are given compensation for the loss of their land when a dam is built. The loss of livelihood brought on by changes in fish diversity, a result of controlling water flow, and loss of hydrological connectivity as a result of the dams, however, is not compensated for by the government. It is ideal to make up for missed fishing catch and livelihood prospects for fisher populations downstream. But these issues often receive little attention. There are also more adjustments. Large wetlands have been turned into building land, primarily in urban areas. Large-scale changes in the marine environment around the world have an impact on fisheries in estuaries and coral reefs. The fishing industry has suffered significantly as a result of commercialisation. Everywhere, the amount of fish caught is being overfished. Unfortunately, commercial interests are driving intense fishing rather than taking measures for sustainable collection. The possibility of revenue is motivating the government to provide subsidies for fishing mechanisation.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest attempted to safeguard the coastal and estuarine ecosystems by notifying a Coast Regulation Zone (CRZ). Communities who depended on fishing questioned some of the act's provisions because they constrained the expansion of their villages. However, they mainly agreed with the notification because it helped designate certain coastal regions as fishing zones for local artisanal fishing groups. It also stopped other types of development, such as jetties, businesses, power plants, etc., that may have harmed fishermen's ability to make a living. Other lobbies, however, have been working hard to loosen the limits and provide new spaces for the growth of industries. Traditional fishing communities today are a politically disorganised, socioeconomically underdeveloped, and highly marginalised population. The main causes of their current situation, particularly for freshwater fisherman, are caste-based discrimination and a lack of effective political leadership.

Any chance of their economic situation improving has been permanently hampered by the state of the rivers, water deterioration, and pollution. It is necessary for them to voice their concerns collectively, particularly in opposition to massive engineering initiatives like dams and river connections that endanger their way of life and lead to unsustainable behaviours.