Profitability and Sustainability of Marine Capture Fishery of West Bengal, India: A Bio Economic Analysis

Globally the productivity of marine fisheries has been on the decline. The classic Fox surplus production model has been widely used for the assessment of sustainability of a particular capture fishery. Using this model, MSY (Maximum Sustainable Yield), MEY (Maximum Economic Yield) and Open Access yield (OAY), and the corresponding effort equivalents in Fmsy, Fmey, and Foay have been calculated for the marine capture fishery of the state of West Bengal, India. For calculation of profit, revenue and cost function, data obtained from primary surveys in the year 2020-2022 have been used. The basic results (r=0.95, P<0.001) indicate that severe overcapacity exists in this particular multispecies fishery. Capacity (12,686) in the year 2018-2019 exceeds not only the point of MEY and MSY, but OAY as well, indicating that continued expansion is not feasible from economic point of view. The point of Fmey was crossed in 2007, Fmsy in 2009 and Foay in 2016. Policy measures have also been discussed taking into consideration the above mentioned finds, and the objectives of UN SDG goals 14, part 4, life under water.