India is gearing up for a massive marine headcount along its coast. The 5th National Marine Fisheries Census (MFC 2025), covering around 1.2 million fisher households, will kick off across nine coastal states and union territories during November and December.
The idea? To gather a detailed snapshot of how marine fisher families live, work, and rely on the sea — from boats and harbours to cold storage and livelihoods.
This 45-day exercise, coordinated by the Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, will be implemented under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).
The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has been roped in as the nodal agency for data collection in coastal states, while the Fishery Survey of India (FSI) will cover the union territories and islands.
Enumerators — selected from local fishing communities themselves — will go door-to-door in every marine fishing village to collect household-level data. The information gathered is expected to include demographic profiles, income sources, access to welfare schemes, and details of fisheries infrastructure like fishing vessels, gear, harbours, fish landing centres, processing units, and cold storage facilities.
Think of it as a full audit of India’s marine fishing life — by those who know it best.
This time, there’s a clear push to make the whole process smarter. Speaking at a high-level meeting, Neetu Kumari Prasad, Joint Secretary at the Department of Fisheries, said digital tools will be a game-changer for MFC 2025. Enumerators will use mobile-based apps, geo-tagging, and real-time data validation to make the census more accurate and efficient.
These upgrades are expected to bring in a more evidence-based approach to managing India’s marine resources — something that many believe is long overdue. With increasing pressure on marine ecosystems and shifting patterns in livelihood dependency, the hope is that this census will throw light on where intervention is really needed.
During the review meeting, officials from the states assured full cooperation — offering help with manpower, resource sharing, and preparing village-level lists for enumeration.
The census timeline and deployment strategies were also outlined, including a three-tier coordination mechanism involving regional, state and district-level supervisors to monitor the field operations.
Officials from CMFRI, FSI, and the ministry, including Dr. Grinson George (Director, CMFRI and National Coordinator of MFC 2025), Dr. J. Jayasankar (Head, FRAEED division), Dr. K. Mohammed Koya (Fisheries Development Commissioner), Dr. Sanjay Pandey (Deputy Commissioner) and Manish Bindal (joint director), attended the meeting and provided updates on preparations.
Well, there’s growing recognition that data is key to better planning — especially when millions of people depend on the ocean for survival. Policies around fisheries governance, livelihood improvement, and infrastructure upgrades can’t be stitched together in the dark.
Reliable numbers, gathered from the ground up, could shape how schemes are designed and how resources are allocated in the coming years.
