Tamilnadu has 3.7 lakh hectare of waterspreads suitable for fish culture. It comprises of major reservoirs (52,000 ha.) Big/small Irrigation tanks (98000 ha.), small lakes and Rural Fishery Demonstration tanks (158000 ha.) and Brackishwater areas, swamps, estuaries (63,000 ha.) (District wise details of inland fisheries resources in Tamilnadu). Tamilnadu is also endowed with rich cold water fishery resources. Apart from this 7400 km length of rivers and canals offer good scope for fisheries development. The Inland Fisheries policy of the state focuses in maximizing the fish production utilizing available inland water resources by adopting scientific freshwater aquaculture management and quality seed production. The inland fishery resources of Tamil Nadu yield 0.87 lakh metric tones of fishes. (District wise inland fish production details) The total inland water spread has a potential to yield about 4.5 lakh metric tones. The inland programmes initiated are focused to bring additional water bodies for fishery development. In Tamilnadu the Inland Fishermen population is 1.83 lakhs. There are 270 nos. of Inland Fishermen Co-operative Societies with total registered membership of 59,000 actively engaged fishermen in fishing activities in the inland water spread areas. The following are the main Inland Fisheries activities implemented by the department.

Schemes:

• Fish Seed Production
• Fish Production in Major Reservoirs
• District Fish Fish Farmers Development Agency
• Intensive Inland Fish Culture and Marketing Scheme
• Fish Rearing in Cages
• Ornamental fish culture.
• Cold Water Fisheries

Special Scheme(s):

• Fish Culture In Farm Ponds