Lok Sabha Question No. 6189 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-04-01
Subject: Monitoring of Marine Living Resources
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Krishna Prasad Tenneti, Shri Dhairyasheel Sambhajirao Mane, Shri P P Chaudhary, Shri Sudheer Gupta, Shri Chavan Ravindra Vasantrao, Shri Kota Srinivasa Poojary, Shri Praveen Patel

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 6189

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 1 ST  APRIL, 2026

## MONITORING OF MARINE LIVING RESOURCES

†6189. SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA:

SHRI CHAVAN RAVINDRA VASANTRAO:

SHRI PRAVEEN PATEL:

SHRI P P CHAUDHARY:

SHRI DHAIRYASHEEL SAMBHAJIRAO MANE:

SHRI KOTA SRINIVASA POOJARY:

SHRI KRISHNA PRASAD TENNETI:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  is  implementing  programmes  for  the  assessment  and monitoring of marine living resources in India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the details and the total number of scientific surveys conducted for the estimation of fishery resources and marine biodiversity during the last three years;
- (c) whether the data generated from these surveys are being utilised to support sustainable fisheries management and marine conservation and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the  details  of  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  strengthen  scientific  research  and monitoring of marine eco-systems in Indian waters?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes  Sir.  The  Centre  for  Marine  Living  Resources  and  Ecology  (CMLRE),  an attached  office  of  the  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences,  has  been  established  with  the primary mandate of assessment and monitoring of marine living resources in India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and for developing management strategies for their conservation. The programmes under which this work is being undertaken are as follows:
- i. Marine Living Resources (MLR)  Programme of CMLRE  for  survey, assessment and monitoring of marine living resources in the Indian EEZ.
- ii. Deep Ocean Mission (DOM), under which CMLRE is the nodal agency for exploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity in India's EEZ, particularly in biodiversity hotspots such as seamounts.
- iii. In addition, ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI), Kochi  is  also  conducting  comprehensive  and  continuous  programmes  for assessment and monitoring of marine living resources across India's territorial waters and EEZ. The assessment and monitoring framework operated by ICARCMFRI rests on two distinct but complementary pillars:
- (a) Landings based Production Monitoring
- (b) Life History Traits based Stock Assessment
- (b) A total  of  22  research  cruises  were  conducted  during  the  last  three  years  for estimation of fishery-resource-related parameters and marine resource assessment.  17  research  cruises  were  undertaken  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal  and Arabian Sea, 1 cruise was taken in the Indian Ocean region and 2 cruises each were  undertaken  in  the  Lakshadweep  and  Andaman  seas  respectively.  These scientific  cruises  were  done  for  mapping  the  living  and  fisheries  resource assessment. In addition, the Fisheries Survey of India (FSI) and ICAR-CMFRI conduct annual stock assessment surveys and provide national status reports such as  National Stock assessment (2022) and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) linked fisheries data submissions (2023-24).
- (c) Yes Sir. The data generated through these surveys are being utilized for fishery resource  and  habitat  assessment,  identification  of  biodiversity  hotspots  and spawning periods/breeding grounds of fish species, ecosystem studies including ocean acidification, and development of biodiversity/genetic databases, thereby supporting sustainable fisheries management and marine conservation. Further, the  Marine  Living  Resources  programme  of  CMLRE  incorporates  advanced technologies  and  multidisciplinary  approaches,  thereby  improving  monitoring systems and enabling better assessment of ocean health. These efforts support evidence-based decision-making for conservation and sustainable use of marine resources.  CMLRE employs advanced and innovative  biodiversity  assessment techniques, including environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding and genomic analyses,  alongside  conventional  sampling  methods.  These  approaches  enable both qualitative and quantitative assessments of biodiversity.
- (d) The  steps  taken  by  the  Ministry  to  strengthen  scientific  research  includes implementation of the Deep Ocean Mission for deep-sea biodiversity exploration and conservation including:
- i. Use of the FORV Sagar Sampada for multidisciplinary marine research
- ii. Strengthening  of  ocean  observation  systems  through  glider  missions, drifters and Argo floats deployments
- iii. Augmentation  of  marine  biodiversity  databases  through  IndOBIS  and related scientific capacity-building efforts.

In  addition,  'Bhavasagara'  is  a  designated  national-level Marine  Biodiversity Referral Centre established at CMLRE, Kochi. It acts as a repository for deep-sea faunal collections from the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). At present, the repository houses a total of 3,560 voucher specimens, of which more than 70% represent deep-water and open-ocean species

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