India is promoting deep-sea fishing with the promise of better incomes for the country’s traditional fishers. Government schemes have sought to accelerate this transition by providing financial support for deep-sea fishing vessels. Yet the move into deeper waters has proved far more complicated than policy documents suggest.
Across the coastal states of India, fishing communities are raising concerns about whether the economics of deep-sea fishing are actually feasible for India’s fishers. In several major fishing states, the government-backed schemes to promote deep-sea fishing have struggled to attract takers.
This series follows the 2020-2025 phase of India’s deep-sea fishing scheme and examines the country’s ambitions, the boats designed to make it possible, the growing focus on high-value species, and, most importantly, the realities faced by fishers being asked to invest in an uncertain future.
Through months of field reporting and conversations with communities across India’s coastal states, Right to Information replies and Lok Sabha reports, Mongabay-India examines what it will take to keep India’s deep-sea dreams afloat.
