India has received approval to continue seafood exports to the US, since the scientifically done stock assessment study on marine mammals by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute’s (CMRI) officials has extended its help in this regard.
US govt’s rule concerning seafood exports
The US government has a rule that states any country carrying out seafood exports to the US must prove that their fishing practices do not harm marine mammals such as whales, dolphins, etc., in a dangerous or unsustainable way. India’s seafood trade with the US was in danger since not enough scientific data were available on how fishing affects marine mammals in Indian waters.
CMFRI led a nationwide study to count how many marine mammals live in India’s ocean areas (EEZ-exclusive Economic Zone), find out how many are accidentally caught (called bycatch) in fishing nets, and check if the bycatch levels are within safe and sustainable limits. They carried out this study by conducting ocean surveys using boats and internationally approved scientific methods (called line transect methodology) and interviewing more than 8,000 fishermen to collect real-world data on accidental catches.
What does the study reveal ?
The study carried out CMFRI, revealed there are healthy populations of marine mammals in Indian waters, including whales, dolphins etc and the number of marine mammals accidentally caught in fishing nets is much lower than the allowed safe limit (called the potential biological removal orPBR)
Concludingly, this scientific study by CMFRI, saved India’s multi-billion dollar sea food trade with the US from a possible ban.