Advancing Blue Economy in the Indian Ocean: A Case of the Fisheries Sector

Abstract

The Indian Ocean is a significant ocean basin with diverse biodiversity. The basin substantially contributes to food security, accounting for around 15% of the world’s wild-caught marine fish. Artisanal fisheries are prevalent in coastal regions and provide food and livelihood to the coastal population, accounting for most of this fishery’s production. In addition, the region is home to a population with significant economic and sociocultural differences. Many nations in the region are classified as low-income countries with significant structural barriers to long-term growth. The region is garnering significance as a frontier to economic development because of governments’ recent interest in growing the ocean sectors, often known as blue economy development. With economic development as the driving force behind the blue economy, the question of the drive’s potential influence on other areas of development, such as ecological and socio-economic sustainability, arises. The blue economy is increasingly being recognized as requiring consideration of four pillars of sustainability: economic, social, environmental, and institutional. In this thesis the four pillars of sustainability, are interrogated in the indian ocean to highlight the present issues and opportunities that come with the region’s blue economy growth. The thesis focuses on the challenges and opportunities for a sustainable fisheries sector, with the results being projected for the larger blue economy sustainability. The thesis takes a three-pronged approach: first, four case studies of fisheries are given: Three case studies highlight the issues that the region’s four pillars of sustainability confront in the fisheries sector, while one case study highlights some potential prospects for achieving a sustainable fisheries sector. The second section incorporates the difficulties and challenges within the fisheries sustainability framework proposed by the Canadian Fisheries Research Network (CFRN). The last section incorporates the findings of the mapping of fisheries sustainability challenges into the larger blue economy. My findings reveal that the fisheries sector has several challenges that cut across the four pillars of sustainability, including overfishing, pollution, and the marginalization of indigenous groups. These issues, particularly those affecting the ecological aspects of sustainability, pose a significant barrier to the sector’s expansion. Additional institutional constraints, such as a lack of administrative competence and coordination between national and regional organizations, exacerbate the problems. An all-inclusive and collaborative governance at the national and regional levels is just as essential as other fisheries management techniques, which leads me to recommend marine spatial planning (MSP) as a key instrument for resolving these issues in the region. Looking at the potential for marine sector growth in the IO, the findings of this thesis show that institutional and governance factors need to be enhanced to build a sustainable blue economy in the region, and we suggest MSP as one way to do so.