The Marine environment consists of the coastal waters, estuaries and the ocean waters including the sea bed and the fauna and flora within those waters.
Artisanal fishery is carried out inside the lagoon as well as off lagoon, near the outer reefs.
Fishermen use pirogues of 6 to 10 metres long built out of wood. They use traditional implements such as hooks and lines, basket traps, large nets, gill nets, canard nets, cast nets and harpoons. In 1995, there were around 2700 fishermen with 1073 pirogues in operation in Mauritius. The catch in tonnes from the lagoon and off lagoon in Mauritius has stabilised around 1600 tonnes per year. A further 30 tonnes come from Agalega.