World Aquaculture Magazine - March 2021

50 MARCH 2021 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S .ORG Fisheries Sector During the COVID-19 Pandemic Fishers have not been able to go out to fish since the end of March 2020 and subsequently were affected by the 45-d annual fishing ban in line with the fish spawning season that came into force along the east coast from 15 April and west coast from 1 June. Brackishwater and freshwater aquaculture farmers have also been affected with harvest delays due to the lack of labor, movement restrictions and market closures. Exports of shrimp to Europe and the US came to a grinding halt and local fish prices fell, leading to loss of income (Bhavani 2020).The following are details regarding the implications of COVID-19 on different components of fisheries during the last four months. Small-scaleFisheries. Small-scale fisheries in India are responsible for providing fish as a significant source of protein at low cost to consumers. Small-scale fishers have issues in three major areas: pricing, marketing and organization. Many of these are long-term needs, but a few activities need to be addressed immediately even though it is in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Nearshore fishers are struggling to market their catch as required by physical distancing norms. The time allotted to sell fish is short and fishers are forced to sell their catch at a low price. For example, lesser sardine was sold at US$ 4.72-6.75 per basket ( tokri ) before the COVID-19 lockdown. Now the rate is just US$ 1.35 per basket in the Malvan village of Maharashtra (Dsouza 2020). The lockdown has also affected allied activities like net mending, regular maintenance of boats and engines. This also causes huge dam- age to high-cost assets like fishing craft and gear. In addition to income loss, the lockdown has seriously disturbed pre-planned activities such as boat and net repair, boat construction and repayment of loans. ShrimpAquaculture. Shrimp farmers are in stressful conditions and worried about their produce. Fear of losing the market, shortage of laborers and falling prices have deeply affected willingness to stock farms for the subsequent crop. As a result, millions of shrimp seed and thousands of broodstock and spawn could be lost. The cycle of shrimp hatchery operations also appears to have been disrupted (Undercurrent News 2020a). Importation of Pacific white shrimp  broodstock  from the United States was halted due to a delay in breeding and rearing cycles, with a potential 20-30 percent fall in shrimp production as a consequence (CGIAR 2020, Ray 2020). The state government of Andhra Pradesh has attempted to fix the price of shrimp at US$ 2.43/ kg (Undercurrent News 2020b), although traders and processors have T he outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global crisis and has been detrimental for public health and the social and economic conditions in many countries. Countries have implemented various containment measures to control the rate of infection such as home confinement, travel bans, maintaining social distancing and business closures. Although food retail businesses like supermarkets, grocery and convenience stores and take-away restaurants have been deemed essential and remain operational, the measures taken to contain COVID-19 have created an environment that has made access to food difficult for many (FAO 2020a and 2020c). The fisheries sector has been impacted by the pandemic from changing consumer demands, restricted market access, logistical problems related to transportation and border restrictions. These issues have negatively affected the livelihood of fishers and fish farmers and the nutritional security of fish-eating people. Rumors and fake messaging regarding the transmittance of disease through seafood have prompted a diminished utilization of fish, bringing about a fall in the prices of fish products. Furthermore, the news regarding the spread of COVID-19 in Beijing around the seafood market area has caused a psychological blockage to the acceptance of seafood. Although transmission through fish is not yet confirmed, according to epidemiologists, this may be a result of low temperature and high humidity conditions in fish markets caused by widespread use of ice and freezers that may be necessary for the long storage of fish but is also conducive to the spread of coronavirus (Reuters 2020). This underlines the requirement for clear messaging about the transmittance of infection and that it is not related to seafood (FAO 2020b). Subsequent clarifications regarding this point were issued by the Central Government of India to reduce the misperceptions of consumers. In India, a nationwide lockdown has been in effect since 25 March 2020. By the time of declaration by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on 15 April 2020 that fisheries and aquaculture sectors were exempted from the lockdown, the time lapse of 20 days from the beginning of lockdown had already hugely affected fish industries (Fig. 1). The lockdown has severely affected livelihoods and occupations across India, especially of the poor. In India, fisheries is an essential sector of food and nutritional security. More than nine million active fishers directly depend on fisheries for their livelihood, of which 80 percent are small-scale fishers. The sector employs over 14 million people with a contribution of 1.1 percent to the Indian GDP (MSSRF 2020). COVID-19: Impacts on Fisheries and Aquaculture in India Pritam Tripathy, Suraj Kumar Pradhan and Sambit Priyadarshi FIGURE 1. Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on fisheries and aquaculture in India.