FSI to add 8 survey vessels in next 6-7 yrs

Fishery Survey of India (FSI) is planning to add eight new survey vessels to its existing fleet of 13 vessels over the next six to seven years at an investment of over Rs 200 crore.

"Currently we have 13 survey vessels of which two joined our fleet a few months back. We plan to replace the old vessels in a phased manner. By 2006-07, we will be acquiring two new vessels, and replace five old vessels with new ones in the next five years," FSI director-general V S Somvanshi told Business Standard. Each survey vessel costs around Rs 30 crore depending on the size and survey equipment, he added.

Keeping in view the depletion of shrimp reserves in the Indian sea waters, FSI is laying more thrust on tuna fishing which fetches around Rs 7,000 crore of foreign exchange to the country annually.

"According to our survey estimates, if we could mobilise sufficient fishing vessels, the country would get around 2.5 lakh tonnes of tuna fish a year. And if we can export the same, exporters will earn $6-12 on each kg of tuna fish, depending on the grade," Somvanshi said.

Japan, US and the European Union countries are the main importers of tuna fish and there is a lot of demand for sesame grade tuna fish which is available in plenty in the Indian waters, he added.

"Currently, tuna fish production is more or less nil. Only four Indian vessels have started tuna fishing recently while another four are set to start their operations in a couple of months. In the current year, the fishing industry is expecting about 12,000 tonnes of tuna from these fishing vessels, and by 2010 tuna fish production may touch 2.5 lakh tonnes a year," Somvanshi said.

He said that the country needs large number of medium and large size vessels to exploit the tuna reserves.

"According to preliminary estimates, the country needs at least 200 big fishing vessels and around 150 small ones besides converting some existing shrimp trawlers into tuna fishing vessels," he pointed out. Fishing industry in the country requires close to Rs 1,000 crore to acquire this huge fleet, he said.