Govt. introduces Aquaculture Bill amid din in Lok Sabha

Subject: Governance / Environment

Concept :

The government introduced the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2023 amidst the disruption of the Lok Sabha by the opposition over demands for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Adani issue.
The Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill was introduced by the Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
The Bill aims to decriminalize certain offences listed under the 2005 Act in order to promote ease of doing business.
The Bill also seeks to fine-tune existing operational procedures of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority and promote newer forms of environment-friendly coastal aquaculture as these new forms have the potential to create additional job opportunities.
Further, the Bill also has provisions that restrict the use of antibiotics and pharmacologically active substances which are harmful to human health in coastal aquaculture.

Coastal Aquaculture Authority:

The Coastal Aquaculture Authority (CAA) was established under the provisions of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005 for regulating the activities connected with coastal aquaculture in coastal areas.
It takes measures for 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 contained in the guidelines shall be followed in regulating coastal aquaculture activities to protect the livelihood of various sections of people living in the coastal areas.

Aquaculture

Aquaculture essentially means, breeding, raising, and harvesting fish, shellfish, and aquatic plants.
In a nutshell, it’s farming in water.
Saline water along the coast has been found to be suitable for practising aquaculture which produces shrimp, majorly.
If aquaculture is not practised on this land, it will be left idle and uncultivated as it is not suitable for the cultivation of crops.
Aquaculture can be practised on about 12 lakh hectares in the country along the coast, of which only 14% has been utilized so far.

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