COASTAL AQUACULTURE BILL 2023

1. Context

2. Key Provisions of the Bill

• The Bill seeks to amend certain provisions of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005, and decriminalize offenses under it for promoting ease of doing business and fine-tuning the operational procedures of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority. 
• Besides amending the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005, the Bill seeks to clarify that coastal aquaculture and activities connected therewith shall continue to be regulated by the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act and no other Acts.
• It aims to promote newer forms of environment-friendly coastal aquaculture such as cage culture, seaweed culture, bi-valve culture, marine ornamental fish culture, and pearl oyster culture, which, it adds, has the potential for creating employment opportunities on a large scale for coastal fisher communities and especially fisherwomen.
• It also aims to encourage the establishment of facilities in areas having direct access to seawater to produce genetically improved and disease-free broodstocks and seeds for use in coastal aquaculture.
• Moreover, the Bill seeks to prevent the use of antibiotics and pharmacologically active substances, which are harmful to human health in coastal aquaculture.

3. What is Coastal Aquaculture?

• Under Section 2 (1)(c) of the 2005 Act, “coastal aquaculture” means culturing or cultivating, under controlled conditions in ponds, pens, enclosures, or otherwise, in coastal areas, of shrimp, prawn, fish, or any other aquatic life in saline or brackish water; but does not include freshwater aquaculture. 
• The 2023 Bill seeks to broaden the definition of coastal aquaculture or coastal aquaculture activity to mean rearing and cultivation of any life stages of fish, including crustacean, mollusc, finfish, seaweed, or any other aquatic life under controlled conditions, either indoor, outdoor, in cement cisterns, ponds, pens, cages, rafts, enclosures or otherwise in saline or brackish water in coastal areas, including activities such as the production of broodstock, seed, grow out but does not include freshwater aquaculture.

4. Provisions for Biosecurity

• The bill also includes new provisions for biosecurity, which refers to measures and strategies for analyzing, managing, and preventing the risk of introducing or spreading harmful organisms like viruses and bacteria within the coastal aquaculture unit, which could lead to infectious diseases.
• It provides for the introduction of a “Brood Stock Multiplication Centre” which receives “post-larvae or juveniles which are specifically pathogen-free” or tolerant or resistant to such pathogens or other post-larvae or juveniles from a “Nucleus Breeding Centre”, to be reared under strict biosecurity and disease surveillance.
• Many of these biosecurity measures also find a mention in the 2015 Guidelines for Regulating Establishment and Operation of SPF Shrimp Broodstock Multiplication Centers, published by the National Fisheries Development Board, which is part of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries, which used to be a part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer's Welfare.
• Formed in 1991, the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries (DAHDF) was earlier responsible for overseeing matters related to animal husbandry, dairy, and fisheries. It advised states and UTs on the formulation of policies and programs.
• Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying was subsumed under the newly created Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying.

5. What is the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, of 2005?

• To take all such measures as it deems necessary or expedient for the regulation of coastal aquaculture by prescribing guidelines.
• To ensure that coastal aquaculture does not cause any detriment to the coastal environment and 
• The concept of responsible coastal aquaculture shall be followed in the regulation of coastal aquaculture activities to protect the livelihood of various sections of people living in the coastal areas.

6. Coastal Aquaculture Authority

7. What did the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act Bill 2022 propose?

• The Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which the government proposed to bring last year, sought to revise the provisions of the principal 2005 Act to reduce the regulatory compliance burden on stakeholders without diluting the core principles of environmental protection in coastal areas.
• It also proposed to decriminalize offenses under the Act and expand the scope of the law to bring all coastal aquaculture activities under its ambit.
• It also proposed to exempt shrimp hatcheries from the application of the 1991 Coastal Regulation Zone notification by amending Section 13(8) of the 2005 Act, which prohibited coastal aquaculture within no-development zones, and Section 27 to exempt the entire coastal aquaculture from the purview of the 1991 notification.

For Prelims & Mains