Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute Marine Fisheries Research in India

Abstract

did not have any direct interest in the fisheries of the country except for the enactment of the Indian Fisheries Act of 1897. Although Fisheries Departments such as the one at Madras were started by the Provincial Governments in the beginning of this century, these Departments were mainly revenue oriented and fisheries remained as a deferred subject at the Central Government level. However, faunistic surveys on fishes carried out by the naturalists under the British Government resulted in monumental, work such as "The Fishes of India" by Sir Francis Day which considerably added to our knowledge on marine and freshwater fishes.