India, Sept. 1 -- Beginning August 27, a 50 percent tariff on Indian frozen seafood exports to the US, the world's largest seafood market, has cast a long shadow over a sector that has thrived for generations.

At Sassoon Dock in Mumbai, one of Maharashtra's busiest and largest seafood-exporting hubs, the air is thick with anxiety despite the usual bustle of unloading, catches, auctioning and processing seafood. The industry here, which has sustained countless families for decades, now faces a future clouded by uncertainty.

The fishing industry in Sassoon Dock is already facing a threat of extinction due to the Mumbai Port Authority's leasing out of godowns for other commercial purposes, a subject that has consistently been reported by H...