By Vijay Jayaraj
In the middle of the calm backwaters of Allepsey in southern India, where Emerald Waters weaves through coconut groves, a dish is created that embodies the soul of the coastal india – Fish Moileee. The dish is a representation of the Indian maritime bounty and is a golden masterpiece of silky coconut cream, tender fish and fragrant spices that are perfectly cooked.
However, the star of the show is the fish. As in many countries, India is blessed with huge excursions of marine waters. The most important are the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Arab Sea. I grew up on three sides of salt water and was always fascinated by the culture of fishing, which maintains the livelihood of 30 million in others.
Today fishing is flourishing on the subcontinent. Fish landings are robust, the aquaculture is booming and the data pour cold water onto the overheated rhetoric of environmental collapse. Let us immerse yourself in the numbers and science that prove that the fish do not succumb to a warm climate. They adapt to it.
Exactly ten years ago I was a doctoral researcher at the fishing center of the University of British Columbia, where I was mainly understood by understanding the evolutionary genetics of marine life and various threshold values of adjustments to different environments, especially climate change.
In contrast to the media tr in the apocalypse, I found that fish are very resilient and that no crisis from climatic variations are exposed. In its 2024 report on “The State of World Fisheries and Agriculture”, the United Nation's food and agricultural organization (FAO) states that “fishing and aquaculture production has reached an all-time high of 223.2 million tons (in 2022) worth $ 472 billion.
The east coast of the USA and the Gulf of America recorded a modest and selective increase in fish landings in 2022 and 2023. The data show that “the production of fishing has remained largely unchanged for decades” despite the reported concerns about climate change.
Fish in the wild and in the aquaculture “were about 15% of animal protein supply and reached over 50% in several countries in Asia and Africa”.
These are great news because every year malnutrition and a lack of protein kill millions of children and adults. In 2023, India's seafish landings reached 3.55 million tons, compared to the 3.51 million tons of 2022 and a full increase of almost 16% compared to the 3.06 million tons of 2021.
And there will be no shortage in the future. The worldwide “water production of the aquatic animals is expected to increase by 2032 by 10% to reach 205 million tons”, with aquaculture expansion and fishing fishing for most of the rise in production.
The climate change, we were told, will make fish breeding impossible: warmer waters breed diseases, disturb the brutz cycles and transform ponds into dead zones. However, the FAO reports that aquaculture in tropical regions such as Southeast Asia and India is growing, where the temperatures are already high.
Warm types of water such as anchovy and anchovies – backbone of the Indian fishing – thrive at temperatures that would make a polar cod -blanch. India's tropical waters with an average of 77 – 80 degrees Fahrenheit are a sweet spot for these shares, and the landings of 2023 are out.
In the states of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, the Brack water grain breeding is a gold mine, with exports in billions. The farmers do not wake their hands over CO2. They optimize food, monitor the water quality and breed harder trunks.
So why the endless plaintiff over dying oceans? It's not about evidence; It's about ideology. Alarmism receives clicks, subsidies and political clout. Stories about “Fischless Sea until 2048” ignore relaxation trends and push alarmism. Activists reinforce the sound and cherry-picking data to exceed anti-fishing.
Yes, oceans face challenges. But the narrative of the inevitable collapse does not serve science or society. It distracts solvable problems such as plastic waste and destruction of the habitat, while it is demonizing carbon dioxide that enrich the earth green and aquatic food chains.
India's delicious coconut fish -Curry is not representative of the refusal to climate, but the fertility of nature – a memory that human ingenuity and resilience of nature can coexist. As global fishing records, we replace fear with facts and apocalyptic rhetoric with implementable responsibility. It seems that the fish is going well.
This comment was published for the first time [your]News on April 9, 2025.
Vijay Jayaraj is science and research assistant at the CO2 coalition in Arlington, Virginia. He has an MS in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University in Great Britain and a Bachelor engineering from Anna
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