All About Fisheries – Erakina

It is a discipline that entails catching fish, processing them, and selling them into the market, overall these 3 stages are performed. These things are taught in the branch ‘fisheries’ itself. The study is of utmost devotion to these crucial processes. Such activities can be said as economically and industry-driven as these would become commercially and economically important aspects.

Although, there arises a misconception that this branch would only focus upon selling the fishes and also upon that this only includes information on just fishes as the name suggests. That’s not all true. This discipline does cover the sale of other seafood species like crabs, lobster, prawns, etc. It also takes into account the whole procedure from capturing the fishes to the sale of those fishes. In this study, fishes usually come under the species, Pisces whereas some other seafood such as molluscs come under vertebrates.

Fishes usually are of two categories that are fresh water and marine water fishes. Because each of the categories of fish lives in a different environment in the water, their tendency of life-span varies as some fishes may live longer than the other fishes based on what type of water-fish they are. Let’s take an insight of it:

Fresh Water Fish:

Fresh-water fishes mainly live in rivers, ponds or lakes. Mostly, where the water is found to be fresh or drinkable. Fishes that mostly are glimpsed here are bony fishes. Libya, Kepler, Blister are some examples of such fish types. These fishes live in a hypertonic environment which means that their body fluids contain comparatively high salt concentrations compared to the surrounding freshwater. These fish types mainly face problems of Endosmosis and Osmosis. Endosmosis is when the water from the outer environment gets into the fish through their skin and gill membrane and the sodium chlorine found in them diffuses out from their body into the surrounding water.

Marine Water Fish: 

These fishes also live in hypertonic environments and they have less salt concentration than the surrounding water. These fish types face the exact opposite problems from the freshwater fish types which are mainly Exosmosis where water continuously diffuses from the fish’s body to the surrounding water and the salt from the water gets infused into the fish’s body as the salt concentration in the water is more than in the fish itself. 

Hingeing upon the environment in which they reside, leading to the tendency of their lifespan they both are different in this case also because of which they show different kinds of adaptation in the environment. 

Dependency:

Talking over fish, a large number of the population is dependent upon these and their products. The fish products such as fish oil, capsules, tablets made by fish extracts, etc. have an extraordinary demand than fish and their market value has been increasing depending upon the high supply of them and the necessity of the people. These factors especially come under the stage of processing. 

In processing, not only the fish are driven but also their products and relatively other products from different sea-aquatic species such as crabs, oysters, prawns, seashells, etc. Freshwater fishes such as Catla and Rohu are edible to eat whereas Marine water fishes which are also known as salt-water fishes like Promphret, Hilsa, Sardines, etc are also eaten. 

In fisheries, the fishes and other sea-aquatic edible animals from the sea and lakes drive the economy by its higher demand and is an important industry of food supply. Also, many fishermen and farmers rely on such a type of industry as it has great beneficial virtues in terms of steady money flow and effective employment. This well-driven industry is particularly focused on the coastal regions and many people see this industry as a full-time career. 

Some techniques are implemented for the production of the fish such as pisciculture and aquaculture. Pisciculture mainly focuses on the Pisces that are undoubtedly the fishes. This overall includes capturing the fish, processing, and selling them to the market. The quality and quantity, the improvement in the masses of fish overall affect the economy of the industry.

On the other side, aquaculture focuses on the flora and fauna and its productivity found in the water body.  In this technique, the flora and fauna that are the aquatic plants are given much care, particularly in their growth. This is because ultimately many of the herbivore Pisces and aquatic animals are dependent on it for their nutrition.  Hence, all of the aquatic animals living in are considered in Aquaculture concerning every flora and fauna as their food. 

Whereas, Pisciculture is a shortened term confined only to the fishes. This has led to the development and flourishing of the fishery industry. While the farmers and fishermen draw a lot of money flow from here, also booming the country’s economy. If we pay attention and use such small implementations, this can surely be a bigger part of the economy thriving. See, for instance, if every person in India is bound to give Rs. 1 in the form of a donation, you will be amazed how this 1 rupee can transform into a bigger level amount. Similarly, by implementing such small steps one can create a strong impact. 

Just like the green revolution, where quality and quantity of the food crops, grains, the production of such food are discussed, similarly, in Blue-revolution the production level of fish and ultimately about them are being discussed. This aspect is also studied in Fisheries and is an important part of the fishery industry.

Why fishery sector is important in India?

The fisheries sector, thus, contributes to the country’s development by increasing its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A well-developed sector means the production in that sector will increase, and this will result in an increased contribution to the GDP of the economy. As read earlier, this sector also focuses on the employment generation in an economy, especially in small-scale industries.

• Security of food and nutrition

The fishery sector also enhances the food security in a country, especially in the Asian and South-Asian countries like India, Singapore, etc.

Not only food security but also the nutrition security of a specific country as we know that fish is higher in nutrition level. Increased production level or more output leads to more products available in the market. Subsequently, the demand will be met by the supply.

When this happens, the prices tend to come down as we have studied in economics. Low prices directly impact the people to purchase more of the products, otherwise, it is unaffordable for the people if prices tend to be higher.

This affordability will, therefore, increase the purchase of fish products. We conclude that if nutrition supply to the population in the form of fish by fisher products is higher, this will also reduce the problem of malnutrition, inadequate food availability, etc.

• Food Processing

Improvement in the fishery sector can lead to improvement in the food processing stage. Fisher products are easy to preserve and can be stored for a long period. Processing means adding a certain value to the raw good. For example, a potato is converted into potato chips. Here, a certain value is added to the raw potato, so are the fish products processed as such. 

• Exports undertaken

Food processing as we recall is the second initial stage after capturing the fish by fisher and other sea-food species followed by the most crucial stage of exportation. When a value is added to the food products, it has a huge storage value. An increased storage value increases the scope of exports. When such instances happen, also about imports, the balance of national income in the country is improved more. Also, there is a favourable balance in the trading situation. Therefore, this industry works as a milestone in the whole economical field as well.

    By ~ Shameen Kharat

27-10-2023