Goa, Dec. 1 -- World Fisheries Day on November 21 offered little celebration in a sector long weighed down by rising costs, weak enforcement and crumbling infrastructure. AJIT PETER JOHN reports

Goa's fishery is inherently a multi-species system marked by unpredictability. Fish here is not a single commodity but a collection of species with shifting demand, and crews never know whether they will return with mackerel, sardines, pomfret or something else entirely. Coastal waters remain biologically rich, but bottom trawling damages species that live on the sea floor, and pollution, climate change and fishing pressure all affect what finally reaches our shores.

- Shamila Monteiro, Director of Fisheries, Government of Goa

Agents effectivel...