The Impact of Overfishing on India’s Marine Ecosystem
● Online | 5 MARCH 2026 | 6:00–7:30 pm
A discussion between activists, community leaders, researchers, and scientists, this online session primarily focused on how the climate crisis is impacting daily fishing practices, livelihoods, and the health of coastal communities in India, compelling many fishers to migrate in search of new homes and means of income.
You can watch the entire panel discussion here.
Meet Our Panellists
CH. Pratima, Community Catalyst at Dakshin Foundation
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Pratima belongs to a small-scale fishing community in Podampeta village, in the Ganjam district of Odisha, and has been closely connected to coastal livelihoods from an early age. She began her journey with Dakshin Foundation as a Coastal Grassroots Fellow. For the past three years, she has been serving as a Community Catalyst, leading and organising community-level workshops focusing on non-communicable diseases, mental health, and adolescent health. Pratima actively supports women’s participation in fisheries livelihoods by engaging with village committees, youth groups, community health workers, Anganwadi workers, and children.
Know more about her work here: https://dakshin.org/dt_team/ch-pratima/
"Climate erosion is not just disrupting our homes but also impacting our livelihood and mental health.[...] It has an intergenerational impact and also impacts our children.”
Pratima discussed the real impact of the climate crisis she sees within her community, including rising temperatures, decline of marine species such as dolphins as well as reduction in the size of catch obtained by fishers, both in terms of quantity and variety of species. Pratima also pointed out that harsh weather conditions don’t allow the sea to be calm as often as before, making it hard for the fishers to go into the sea for daily fishing. All of these elements are interconnected and affecting fishers’ homes, livelihood, and mental health, she said. Pratima also highlighted that now, catching large quantities of fish does not earn fishers a good enough income as most of the species being caught are lesser known and do not have demand in the market.
According to Pratima, it is common for mechanised boats to dominate the sea while the rest of the small fishers’, who use non-motorised boats return empty-handed. “Fishers have three properties—house, boat, and fishing net,” she said, all of which are impacted by the climate crisis.
Siddharth Chakravarty, Researcher and Activist
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Siddharth Chakravarty has spent most of his adult life on the oceans, first in the Merchant Navy, then as a campaigner with the direct-action conservation group Sea Shepherd, and currently in research and organisational support with workers and fishers’ collectives in the Indian seafood sector. He has recently completed his doctorate degree researching the seafood industry in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. He is an executive committee member of the National Federation of Small-Scale Fish Workers, a federation of trade unions of small-scale fishworkers.
Know more about Siddharth’s work here:
The Real Tragedy Of The Commons | Nature inFocus
Small Scale Fish Workers | NATIONAL PLATFORM FOR SMALL SCALE FISHWORKERS (INLAND)
Between forests and coasts: Fishworkers on the move in India | Journal of Agrarian Change
“In this moment we need to feel the grief of the stories of fishers that come around climate change. [..] There is a real loss of culture and ways of living... there is violence that happens both in real time through cyclones but also through slow everyday erosion of people’s actual lives and futures.”
Siddharth discussed the importance of holding the grief of stories that are revealed as a result of the climate crisis and how researchers, policy makers, activists can use that knowledge and feeling to kickstart action for uplifting fishing communities. Small-scale fisherfolk have historically been at the forefront of movements to initiate and develop policy for fishing communities in India, but we are now seeing a decline in that power, with fishing communities becoming more vulnerable to the climate crisis and to the impacts of overfishing, Siddharth pointed out. According to him, small-scale fishers have always organised and fought for their rights, even as they struggle against the reduction of fishing resources. “That fight is at its peak now,” he said. Siddharth added how important it is for citizens, consumers, researchers, and policy makers to centre small-scale fishing communities in their work, apart from understanding the history of water bodies and the cultural, ecological, and political boundaries within which they exist.
Dr. Vivekanandan Elayaperumal, Scientist and Fishery Biologist
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Dr. Vivekanandan Elayaperumal has pioneered research on many aspects of marine fisheries, the climate crisis, and fisheries value chains in India. He is presently an International Consultant in the multi-country BOBLME project executed by the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO). He has played key roles in fisheries data collection and analysis along with preparing marine fisheries management plans and policies in India.
Know more about his work here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0967064518301875
“Along the east coast of India, cyclones are becoming an annual event and their intensity is increasing, causing great damage to fishing communities and their assets.”
Dr. Vivekanandan Elayaperumal discussed how the climate crisis is impacting marine species, especially those that are unable to handle ocean acidification and higher temperatures and have less reproductive capacity, and are hence unable to survive these changes. He also discussed how being exposed to the hot sun and soaring temperatures impacted fishers’ health, leading to heat strokes, skin diseases, and retina damage. He mentioned that the climate crisis has caused a decline in the number of days fishing communities get in a year to fish, even damaging their boats and houses. Dr Vivekanandan went on to describe the impact of overfishing and unsustainable fishing activities, pointing out that these practices combine with the climate crisis to drastically decline the catch available for small-scale fishers. “Under unsustainable fishing, huge quantities of juvenile fish are being caught,” he said. This does not give the species enough time to grow, according to Dr. Vivekanandan. While discussing the regulations related to fisheries, he mentioned that there is a lack of acknowledgement of the climate crisis under state policies, emphasising the importance of bringing such conversations into the mainstream for effective regulation of fisheries.
Sipra Das, Programme Assistant, Dakshin Foundation (Moderator)
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Sipra Das is an environmental researcher with interests in microplastic pollution, biodiversity conservation, and community engagement. She currently serves at Dakshin Foundation as a Programme Assistant in the Community and Resource Governance team, where she coordinates the Coastal Grassroots Fellowship in Ganjam, Odisha.
Discussion
- The climate crisis is impacting living resources in India’s marine ecosystem, causing a decline in several species that are unable to survive ocean acidification and extreme heat. The climate crisis, however, has the most impact on small-scale fishers and their homes, health, and livelihood. This is both at sea, through impact on fish resources and fishing conditions, and on land through erosion, cyclones, and floods.
- Overfishing and using large vessels, as well as employing boats with petrol and diesel, has led to a condition where the benefits of fishing increasingly accrue towards a minority of fishers, often those with larger fishing vessels. Overfishing has also impacted the development of various species as it gives rise to bycatch of juvenile species, before they fully develop.
- While communities and fishing associations have played an important role in forming policies for fishing communities in India, existing policies still lack acknowledgement of on-ground realities of small-scale fisherfolk and the impact the climate crisis has on their health and livelihoods.
Learnings
- Bulk of the small-scale Indian fisheries sector is distributed closer to the coastline and this region remains the backbone for nutritionally secure and affordable food. If the government of India moves towards deep-sea fishing, managing marine resources, especially in face of risks from the climate crisis is vital. Regulations should be put down from the very beginning, Dr. Vivekanandan said. He also stated that deep sea resources are extremely vulnerable and if we are not careful, these resources can deplete very easily.
- Currently, there are several apps that provide weather warnings, proving beneficial to fishers. But communities in coastal villages will benefit from awareness programmes and new policies made accessible to them either digitally in the local language or regular on-ground meetings with the community. Pratima mentioned that fisherfolk will also benefit from training on best practices to catch different types of fish.
- In order to tackle the challenges posed by the climate crisis and by overfishing, the problems encountered by fishing communities need to be looked at from a lens of public accountability. “We need a conversation that says that public resources are declining and they are being exploited for the profit of a few (people). There is a tug of war happening between who gets to profit off the resource,” Siddharth said. “It is causing real livelihood losses as well as [concerns around] domestic and nutritional food security and is leading to an exacerbation of the climate crisis.”.
This Beyond the Plate session was co-organised by The Locavore and Dakshin Foundation as part of the Feeding the Future Project.
Dakshin Foundation is a not-for-profit, charitable, non-governmental organisation committed to environmental sustainability and social justice. Their mission is to inform and catalyse conservation and natural resource management, while promoting and supporting sustainable livelihoods, social development, and environmental justice.
Feeding the Future Project is a collaboration between The Locavore and Hands of Transition. It attempts to illuminate how food producers across India are adapting to a changing climate—through locally rooted knowledge, ecological practices, and collective strength.
Read more about the Feeding The Future Project here.
Beyond the Plate is an initiative by The Locavore where we engage in meaningful conversations, live events, and dining experiences that look at food beyond the sum of its parts. It is our attempt to narrow the divide between what’s on our plate, where it comes from, how it’s produced, and the deeper stories around it.
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