5th Marine Census launched at the 2025 Coastal States Fisheries Meet

The government of India has launched the 5th Marine Census, accompanied by the introduction of a mobile application, Vyas-NAV, for digital-based data collection. The mobile application was launched during the Coastal States Fisheries Meet 2025 in Mumbai on April 28, 2025, which was chaired by the Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh. The last Marine census was conducted in 2016 in the country.

About the Vyas-NAV mobile app and Digital Census 

The Kochi-based Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has developed the Vyas-NAV (Village Jetty Appraisal NAVigator) app. Census supervisors will use the Vyas-NAV app for field verification of fishing villages, fish landing centres and fishing harbours.

Highlights of the Census 

• The 5th Marine census will be a digital, geo-referenced, app-based system. 
• The census enumerators will be provided with tablets pre-installed with the Vyas-NAV app. 
• The census enumerators will fill in the census data in a digital format through the app. 
• It will eliminate or minimise the error in the collection and tabulation of census data.
• This will ensure transparency and efficiency in data collection.

Features of the 5th Marine Census 

• The census will be conducted from April to December 2025.
• It will cover marine fishing villages, marine fish landing centres, and 1.2 million households in the 9 coastal states.
• The census will collect demographic and socio-economic data on the fisheries households.
•  recorded,
• The impact of a government scheme on their livelihood will also be documented.
• The census will also document the infrastructure of fishermen, fishing villages, and fishing harbours, among other things.

Agencies involved in the 5th Marine Census? 

• The 5th Marine census is being coordinated by the Department of Fisheries of the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
• The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) is the nodal agency for implementing the marine fisheries census in nine coastal states: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal.
• The census enumerators are from CMFRI, the Fisheries Survey of India, and the Fisheries Departments of the nine coastal states.

Marine Census in India 

• First:  It was conducted by CMFRI in 1948-49.
• Second: - It was conducted by CMFRI in 1980. It covered all coastal states except Maharashtra. In Maharashtra, the census was conducted by the state government in 1979.
• Third:  It was conducted by CMFRI with the support of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries (DAHDF), Government of India, in 2005. It was conducted in all maritime states and two Union Territories. 
• Fourth:  It was jointly conducted by CMFRI and DAHDF in 2010. It covered all nine coastal states and two Union Territories.

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