摘要：Digha in West Bengal is a small place on the shores of Bay of Bengal. It is really hard to lead life for fishermen of this area. Fishing activities in this zone provide economic sustenance and a source of livelihood to a cross-section of people who, in turn support the flourishing trade in this lower Ganga deltaic region. Digha is located in the West Midnapore district of the State of West Bengal of Eastern India and lies in the southern most part of the state on the bank of Bay of Bengal. With the introduction of diesel using powerboats, deep-sea fishing and mechanization in fishing is taking an upturn. It has been observed in Digha coastal areas, that total marine fish landing mainly consists of sardine, hilsa, coila, pomphret, croakers, Bombay duck, catfish, ribbon fish, shark, shankar, prawn etc. Thus total 37 varieties of fish are found here. Prawn culture is also an important mean of livelihood of the fisherman of this area. Acquiring their livelihood by fishing, sometimes it leads to loss of marine biodiversity by killing of some endangered and endemic species. For example, overexploitation of shark by these fishermen leads to the extinction of them. Already 18 species of sharks have been listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). So, economic biodiversity conservation is in conflict with profitability of the fishery. There is high requirement of developing and adopting economically and socially sound measures that act as for the conservation and sustainable use of components of biological diversity incentives.
